SaltStack Salt Command Injection in netapi ssh client

Description

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.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
critical
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2022-05-24 17:33:18 UTC
Updated
2025-10-22 17:55:31 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2024-04-22 22:23:42 UTC
NVD published
2020-11-06

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
94.39% 99.97%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
9.8 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:H 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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
Exploit maturity (E:H)
Exploits are easy to find or already weaponized—assume people are using them.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-78 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')

Affected packages (9)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
pip salt < 2015.8.13 2015.8.13
pip salt >= 2016.3.0, < 2016.3.8 2016.3.8
pip salt >= 2016.11.0, < 2016.11.10 2016.11.10
pip salt >= 2017.5.0, < 2017.7.8 2017.7.8
pip salt >= 2018.2.0, < 2018.3.5 2018.3.5
pip salt >= 2019.2.0, < 2019.2.6 2019.2.6
pip salt >= 3000.0, < 3000.4 3000.4
pip salt >= 3001, < 3001.2 3001.2
pip salt >= 3002, < 3002.1 3002.1

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence