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FedoraOperating system · Fedoraproject

CVE-2021-3144

CRITICAL · 9.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-02-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2015.8.10 / 2015.8.13 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
In SaltStack Salt before 3002.5, eauth tokens can be used once after expiration. (They might be used to run command against the salt master or minions.)

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

In SaltStack Salt before version 3002.5, the eauth (external authentication) token validation logic incorrectly allows expired tokens to be used one additional time. This token expiration bypass enables attackers who have obtained expired eauth tokens to continue executing commands against the salt master or connected minions.

MitigationUpgrade SaltStack Salt to version 3002.5 or later to patch the token expiration validation logic, and consider rotating any eauth tokens that may have been exposed or used near expiration.

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
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 32= 33= 34
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 9.0= 10.0= 11.0
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>= 2016.3.9, < 2016.11.3>= 2016.11.4, < 2016.11.5>= 2016.11.7, < 2016.11.10>= 2017.5.0, < 2017.7.8>= 2018.2.0, <= 2018.3.5>= 2019.2.0, < 2019.2.5>= 2019.2.6, < 2019.2.8

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
None

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

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. Check installed Salt version
    Run 'salt --version' or 'salt-master --version' to get the exact version number
    Affected if Version falls within any of these ranges: < 2015.8.10, 2015.8.11-2015.8.12, 2016.3.0-2016.3.3, 2016.3.5, 2016.3.7, 2016.3.9-2016.11.2, 2016.11.4-2016.11.4, 2016.11.7-2016.11.9, 2017.5.0-2017.7.7, 2018.2.0-2018.3.5, 2019.2.0-2019.2.4, or 2019.2.6-2019.2.7 (versions before 3002.5 are vulnerable)
  2. Confirm eauth is enabled
    Look for 'external_auth' or 'eauth' configuration in /etc/salt/master or master config file, or check for presence of any token files in /var/cache/salt/master/tokens/ directory
    Affected if external_auth is configured and active in the Salt master configuration
  3. Identify if eauth tokens were used near expiration
    Review Salt master logs for authentication events using eauth, particularly look for token usage around the time tokens would have expired
    Affected if eauth tokens were in active use and could have expired recently, as the vulnerability allows one additional use of expired tokens

You are affected if you run any Salt version before 3002.5 with eauth (external authentication) enabled and actively use eauth tokens, as expired tokens can be reused one extra time.

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 SaltStack Salt to version 3002.5 or later to patch the token expiration validation logic, and consider rotating any eauth tokens that may have been exposed or used near expiration.

Recommended fix High confidence

Salt 3002.5 or later

  1. 1. Check the currently installed Salt version: salt --version
  2. 2. For Fedora systems: Run 'sudo dnf update salt' to upgrade to the latest available version in the repository
  3. 3. For Debian systems: Run 'sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install salt-master salt-minion' to install the latest available version
  4. 4. Alternatively, install Salt 3002.5 or later from the official SaltStack repository: curl -fsSL https://repo.saltproject.io/py3/ubuntu/20.04/amd64/latest/salt-archive-keyring.pgp | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/salt-archive-keyring.gpg, then configure the repository and install
  5. 5. After upgrade, restart salt-master and salt-minion services: sudo systemctl restart salt-master && sudo systemctl restart salt-minion
  6. 6. Verify the fix by checking that expired eauth tokens are rejected: confirm Salt version is 3002.5 or later and test token expiration behavior
Caveat Review SaltStack 3002.5 release notes for any configuration or behavior changes, though none directly related to this security fix are expected

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

Fix this in Fedora Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,080
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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-2021-3144 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