CVE-2020-11651

SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

  • Critical 9.8
  • Exploited: added to CISA KEV 3 Nov 2021

Description

An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt before 2019.2.4 and 3000 before 3000.2. The salt-master process ClearFuncs class does not properly validate method calls. This allows a remote user to access some methods without authentication. These methods can be used to retrieve user tokens from the salt master and/or run arbitrary commands on salt minions.

Key facts

Published
30 Apr 2020
Last changed
21 Oct 2025
Assigned by
mitre
KEV added
3 Nov 2021
KEV fix due
3 May 2022
EPSS
96.614% likely to be exploited in the next 30 days, higher than 99.884% of CVEs (scores for 15 Nov 2026)
SSVC (CISA)
Exploitation: active; Automatable: yes; Technical impact: total

Severity scores

Each score is shown as its source gave it. They are not averaged or merged.

  • 9.8CVSS 3.1, Criticalfrom CISA (ADP container)CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

What to do

  • Apply updates per vendor instructions.CISA KEV required action

Historical context and remediation

This reference retains the original CVE publication date. A recent record update does not mean a new attack occurred.

No separately sourced impact summary is available on this page yet. Consult the description, version data and dated exploitation evidence.

Version statuses below come from the CNA. An “unaffected” version is not necessarily a currently supported release or proof of a patch date. EPSS is a dated risk estimate, not a count of historical attacks.

Read the original CVE record.

Affected products

VendorProductVersions
n/an/a
  • n/a (affected)

Timeline

  1. 30 Apr 2020 Published
  2. 3 Nov 2021 CVE-2020-11651 added to CISA KEV
  3. 3 Nov 2021 Added to the CISA KEV catalogue

References