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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 3 May 2022.
Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2020-16846

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-11-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2015.8.10 / 2015.8.13 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt through 3002. Sending crafted web requests to the Salt API, with the SSH client enabled, can result in shell injection.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Shell injection vulnerability in SaltStack Salt's API (versions through 3002) that allows remote code execution when the SSH client is enabled. Attackers can send crafted web requests to the Salt API to inject arbitrary shell commands.

MitigationUpgrade Salt to version 3002.1 or later. If immediate patching is not possible, disable the Salt SSH client if not required and restrict API access to trusted networks only.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 9.0= 10.0
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 31
SaltApplication
Affected:< 2015.8.10>= 2015.8.11, < 2015.8.13>= 2016.3.0, < 2016.3.4>= 2016.3.5, < 2016.3.6>= 2016.3.7, < 2016.3.8>= 2016.11.0, < 2016.11.3>= 2016.11.4, < 2016.11.6>= 2016.11.7, < 2016.11.10>= 2017.5.0, < 2017.7.4>= 2017.7.5, < 2017.7.8>= 2018.2.0, < 2018.3.5>= 2019.2.0, < 2019.2.5
LeapOperating system
Affected:= 15.1

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Salt installation and version
    Run 'salt --version' or check the package manager (dpkg -l | grep salt, rpm -qa | grep salt) to find the installed Salt version
    Affected if The installed version falls within any of the affected ranges: < 2015.8.10, >= 2015.8.11 < 2015.8.13, >= 2016.3.0 < 2016.3.4, >= 2016.3.5 < 2016.3.6, >= 2016.3.7 < 2016.3.8, >= 2016.11.0 < 2016.11.3, >= 2016.11.4 < 2016.11.6, >= 2016.11.7 < 2016.11.10, >= 2017.5.0 < 2017.7.4, >= 2017.7.5 < 2017.7.8,
  2. Verify if SSH client is enabled in Salt
    Check the Salt master configuration file (typically /etc/salt/master) for the 'client_acl' or 'external_auth' settings, or look for the presence of the 'salt-ssh' binary and its configuration in /etc/salt/
    Affected if The SSH client module is enabled or configured in Salt (the vulnerability only applies when SSH client is active)
  3. Confirm Salt API (REST) is running and accessible
    Check if the Salt API service is running (systemctl status salt-api) and inspect configuration files for REST CherryPy or Flask API endpoints
    Affected if The Salt API is exposed and accessible to network callers (the shell injection occurs through API requests)
  4. Review API access controls
    Examine /etc/salt/master for 'rest_cherrypy' or 'rest_flask' configuration sections and verify authentication settings; check if the API is bound to 0.0.0.0 or a public interface
    Affected if The API lacks proper authentication or is exposed on an untrusted network

You are affected if you have a vulnerable Salt version AND the SSH client is enabled AND the Salt API is accessible to potential attackers.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2015.8.10 / 2015.8.13 / 2016.3.4 or later
Fixed in 2015.8.102015.8.132016.3.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Salt to version 3002.1 or later. If immediate patching is not possible, disable the Salt SSH client if not required and restrict API access to trusted networks only.

Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to Salt version 3002.1 or later (recommended: latest stable 3003.x or 3004.x release)

  1. 1. Identify the currently installed Salt version using: salt --version or rpm -q salt
  2. 2. Stop Salt services on all minions and the master before upgrading
  3. 3. For Debian/Ubuntu: Run 'apt-get update && apt-get install salt-master salt-minion salt-ssh'
  4. 4. For Fedora: Run 'dnf update salt'
  5. 5. For openSUSE Leap: Run 'zypper update salt'
  6. 6. Verify the new version is installed: salt --version
  7. 7. Restart Salt services: systemctl restart salt-master && systemctl restart salt-minion
  8. 8. Ensure the Salt API service is restarted if it was running
Caveat When upgrading between major Salt versions (e.g., 2015.x to 2016.x or 3000+), review the release notes for breaking changes in configuration files, states, and APIs

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Debian Linux Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-16846 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data