CVE-2023-20897
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 · uneditedSalt masters prior to 3005.2 or 3006.2 contain a DOS in minion return. After receiving several bad packets on the request server equal to the number of worker threads, the master will become unresponsive to return requests until restarted.
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 confidenceA denial of service vulnerability exists in Salt masters prior to versions 3005.2 and 3006.2. When the master receives a number of malformed packets on its request server equal to or exceeding the configured worker thread count, the master becomes unresponsive to minion return requests and requires a restart to recover.
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< 3005.2>= 3006.0, < 3006.2CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed Salt master versionRun `salt-master --version` or `salt --version` to retrieve the version number of the Salt master softwareAffected if The version is lower than 3005.2, or is 3006.0 or 3006.1 (falls within < 3005.2 or >= 3006.0, < 3006.2)
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Verify Salt master service is runningCheck if the salt-master process is active using `systemctl status salt-master` or `ps aux | grep salt-master`Affected if The master service is running and the version is vulnerable (per step 1)
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Locate worker thread configurationInspect the Salt master configuration file (commonly /etc/salt/master) and locate the `worker_threads` settingAffected if The configuration shows a worker thread count; the DoS triggers when malformed packets equal or exceed this number
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Monitor for master unresponsivenessTest master responsiveness by executing a simple test command such as `salt-call test.ping` from the master itself or checking minion return receiptAffected if The master fails to respond or minions cannot deliver return data, indicating the DoS condition may be present
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Check for restart requirementReview system logs or attempt to confirm whether the master has required a manual restart to recover functionalityAffected if The master has become unresponsive and needed a restart, which aligns with the described vulnerability behavior
A user is affected if they are running a Salt master version 3005.2 or 3006.2 or later, or if their running master has become unresponsive due to receiving malformed packets in quantities meeting or exceeding the worker thread count.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 · scoped3005.23006.2
Upgrade Salt master to version 3005.2 or 3006.2 or later. As a temporary workaround, restart the master service if it becomes unresponsive.
3005.2 (if on 3005.x branch) or 3006.2 (if on 3006.x branch)
- 1. Identify your current Salt master version using: salt --version
- 2. For Salt 3005.x versions: Upgrade to 3005.2 or later
- 3. For Salt 3006.0-3006.1 versions: Upgrade to 3006.2 or later
- 4. On RHEL/CentOS: Run 'yum update salt-master' or 'dnf update salt-master'
- 5. On Debian/Ubuntu: Run 'apt-get update && apt-get install salt-master'
- 6. Verify the new version: salt --version
- 7. Restart the Salt master service: systemctl restart salt-master
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-20897 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-20897 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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