CVE-2020-16846 — SaltStack Salt Shell Injection Vulnerability
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.
Published
2020-11-06T07:27:24.000Z
Last modified
2025-10-21T23:35:33.124Z
CISA KEV — Actively Exploited
01What is this vulnerability?
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.
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:
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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: 2020-11-06T07:27:24.000Z
- Last modified: 2025-10-21T23:35:33.124Z
- Added to CISA KEV: 2021-11-03
- BOD 22-01 due: 2022-05-03
09References
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