CVE-2023-20897

Salt 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.

Published: 2023-09-05 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-20897 is rated Moderate Risk (42.8/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.03%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-20897

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 2026-06-15 0.15% 1.03% +0.88%
2 2026-04-19 0.11% 0.15% +0.04%
3 2026-01-30 — 0.11% —

Full EPSS history (12 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-20897

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L 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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 3.9 1.4 [email protected]
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L 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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 3.9 1.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-20897

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-20897

GHSA-vpjg-wmf8-29h9 · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: pip — Salt vulnerable to denial of service

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-20897

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-20897: 1 source package rows (salt); 11 state rows across 3 repos (3.18-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 0, open 11. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-20897
gentoo normal CVE-2023-20897: 1 GLSA(s) (202412-09), 1 atom(s) (app-admin/salt); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2023-20897
suse medium — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-20897/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-20897 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (salt), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 7, ignored 3, needed 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-20897

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-20897

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
saltstack salt < 3005.2 cpe:2.3:a:saltstack:salt:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
saltstack salt >= 3006.0, < 3006.2 cpe:2.3:a:saltstack:salt:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-20897

cvelogic Threat Intelligence