CVE-2020-11651 — SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

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

01What is this vulnerability?

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.

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
n	a / n/a	n/a

03Active exploitation status

Yes — actively exploited. Added to the CISA KEV catalog on 2021-11-03. Ransomware use: Unknown.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Open the Sigma generator with a pre-filled prompt for this CVE to draft a starting detection in your stack of choice:

Open in Sigma generator →

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2020-04-30T16:58:09.000Z
• Last modified: 2025-10-21T23:35:44.859Z
• Added to CISA KEV: 2021-11-03
• BOD 22-01 due: 2022-05-03

09References

• docs.saltstack.com — https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/topics/releases/2019.2.4.html
• github.com — https://github.com/saltstack/salt/blob/v3000.2_docs/doc/topics/releases/3000.2.r…
• lists.opensuse.org — http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-04/msg00047.html
• packetstormsecurity.com — http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157560/Saltstack-3000.1-Remote-Code-Executi…
• www.debian.org — https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4676
• www.vmware.com — http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2020-0009.html
• packetstormsecurity.com — http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157678/SaltStack-Salt-Master-Minion-Unauthe…
• tools.cisco.com — https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-s…
• lists.debian.org — https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/05/msg00027.html
• lists.opensuse.org — http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-07/msg00070.html
• usn.ubuntu.com — https://usn.ubuntu.com/4459-1/