CVE-2020-11652

Exp

An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt before 2019.2.4 and 3000 before 3000.2. The salt-master process ClearFuncs class allows access to some methods that improperly sanitize paths. These methods allow arbitrary directory access to authenticated users.

Published: 2020-04-30 Last update: 2025-11-07 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-11652 is rated Critical Active Threat (85.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 93.68%, 100th percentile). CISA KEV confirms active exploitation (added 2021-11-03) affecting SaltStack / Salt. a weakness (CWE-22) Unauthenticated remote administrative access may be possible. The CISA remediation deadline has passed—treat as an emergency patch priority.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

CISA KEV Record for CVE-2020-11652

Name: SaltStack Salt Path Traversal Vulnerability · CISA KEV detail

Exploit added: 2021-11-03

Action due: 2022-05-03

Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2020-11652

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
48421 exploit_db edb 2020-05-05 Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-11652

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-05-08 93.88% 93.68% -0.20%
2 2026-04-19 94.27% 93.88% -0.38%
3 2025-12-28 — 94.27% —

Full EPSS history (24 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-11652

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 3.6 [email protected]
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 3.6 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
4.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 8.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-11652

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2020-11652

GHSA-vp49-2g4r-m3x3 · Severity: high · Ecosystem: pip — SaltStack Salt is vulnerable Arbitrary Directory Access

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-11652

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2020-11652: 1 source package rows (salt); 9 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 7, open 2. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2020-11652
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-11652
suse critical CVE-2020-11652 severity critical: SUSE including 176 source package names (1.4.2:python3-distro-1.5.0-3.5.1, 2.5.3-61.1:python3-distro-1.5.0-3.5.1, …), 624 product×package rows across 242 product lines (Container caasp/v4/389-ds, Container suse/389-ds, … (242 product lines)): Fixed 619, Known Not Affected 5. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-11652/
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-11652 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (salt), 11 status rows across 11 suites (bionic, eoan, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 4, released 4, not-affected 2, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-11652

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-11652

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
saltstack salt < 2019.2.4 cpe:2.3:a:saltstack:salt:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
saltstack salt >= 3000, < 3000.2 cpe:2.3:a:saltstack:salt:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse leap 15.1 cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
blackberry workspaces_server <= 7.1.3 cpe:2.3:a:blackberry:workspaces_server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
blackberry workspaces_server >= 8.0.0, <= 8.2.6 cpe:2.3:a:blackberry:workspaces_server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
blackberry workspaces_server 9.1.0 cpe:2.3:a:blackberry:workspaces_server:9.1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
vmware application_remote_collector 7.5.0 cpe:2.3:a:vmware:application_remote_collector:7.5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
vmware application_remote_collector 8.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:vmware:application_remote_collector:8.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-11652

URL Tags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-04/msg00047.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-07/msg00070.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157560/Saltstack-3000.1-Remote-Code-Execution.html Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157678/SaltStack-Salt-Master-Minion-Unauthenticated-Remote-Code-Execution.html Exploit Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://support.blackberry.com/kb/articleDetail?articleNumber=000063758 Third Party Advisory
http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2020-0009.html Third Party Advisory
https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/topics/releases/2019.2.4.html Vendor Advisory
https://github.com/saltstack/salt/blob/v3000.2_docs/doc/topics/releases/3000.2.rst Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/05/msg00027.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-salt-2vx545AG Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4459-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4676 Third Party Advisory
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-11652 US Government Resource
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