CVE-2020-16846

SaltStack Salt Shell Injection Vulnerability

Severity Score

9.8

*CVSS v3.1

Exploit Likelihood

*EPSS

Affected Versions

*CPE

Public Exploits

*Multiple Sources

Exploited in Wild

Yes

*KEV

Decision

*SSVC

Descriptions

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.

Se detectó un problema en SaltStack Salt versiones hasta 3002. El envío de peticiones web diseñadas a la Salt API, con el cliente SSH habilitado, puede resultar en una inyección shell

This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of SaltStack Salt. Authentication is not required to exploit this vulnerability.
The specific flaw exists within the rest_cherrypy module. When parsing the ssh_remote_port_forwards parameter, the process does not properly validate a user-supplied string before using it to execute a system call. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the context of the salt-api process.

SaltStack Salt allows an unauthenticated user with network access to the Salt API to use shell injections to run code on the Salt API using the SSH client. This vulnerability affects any users running the Salt API.

*Credits: KPC of Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative

CVSS Scores

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

Low

Integrity

Low

Availability

Low

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Authentication

None

Confidentiality

Partial

Integrity

Partial

Availability

Partial

* Common Vulnerability Scoring System

SSVC

Decision:-

Exploitation

Automatable

Tech. Impact

* Organization's Worst-case Scenario

Timeline

2020-08-04 CVE Reserved
2020-11-03 First Exploit
2020-11-06 CVE Published
2021-11-03 Exploited in Wild
2022-05-03 KEV Due Date
2024-08-04 CVE Updated
2024-08-26 EPSS Updated

CWE

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

CAPEC

References (16)

URL	Tag	Source
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/160039/SaltStack-Salt-REST-API-Arbitrary-Command-Execution.html	Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases	Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/12/msg00007.html	Mailing List
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/01/msg00000.html	Mailing List
https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1379	Third Party Advisory
https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1380	Third Party Advisory
https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1381	Third Party Advisory
https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1382	Third Party Advisory
https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1383	Third Party Advisory

URL	Date	SRC
https://github.com/zomy22/CVE-2020-16846-Saltstack-Salt-API	2021-10-26
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/master/modules/exploits/linux/http/saltstack_salt_api_cmd_exec.rb	2020-11-03

URL	Date	SRC

URL	Date	SRC
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-11/msg00029.html	2023-11-07
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TPOGB2F6XUAIGFDTOCQDNB2VIXFXHWMA	2023-11-07
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202011-13	2023-11-07
https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4837	2023-11-07
https://www.saltstack.com/blog/on-november-3-2020-saltstack-publicly-disclosed-three-new-cves	2020-11-03

Affected Vendors, Products, and Versions

Vendor		Product				Version		Other		Status
Vendor	Product	Version	Other	Status	<-- -->	Vendor	Product	Version	Other	Status
Saltstack Search vendor "Saltstack"		Salt Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt"				< 2015.8.10 Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt" and version " < 2015.8.10"		-		Affected
Saltstack Search vendor "Saltstack"		Salt Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt"				>= 2015.8.11 < 2015.8.13 Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt" and version " >= 2015.8.11 < 2015.8.13"		-		Affected
Saltstack Search vendor "Saltstack"		Salt Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt"				>= 2016.3.0 < 2016.3.4 Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt" and version " >= 2016.3.0 < 2016.3.4"		-		Affected
Saltstack Search vendor "Saltstack"		Salt Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt"				>= 2016.3.5 < 2016.3.6 Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt" and version " >= 2016.3.5 < 2016.3.6"		-		Affected
Saltstack Search vendor "Saltstack"		Salt Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt"				>= 2016.3.7 < 2016.3.8 Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt" and version " >= 2016.3.7 < 2016.3.8"		-		Affected
Saltstack Search vendor "Saltstack"		Salt Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt"				>= 2016.11.0 < 2016.11.3 Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt" and version " >= 2016.11.0 < 2016.11.3"		-		Affected
Saltstack Search vendor "Saltstack"		Salt Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt"				>= 2016.11.4 < 2016.11.6 Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt" and version " >= 2016.11.4 < 2016.11.6"		-		Affected
Saltstack Search vendor "Saltstack"		Salt Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt"				>= 2016.11.7 < 2016.11.10 Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt" and version " >= 2016.11.7 < 2016.11.10"		-		Affected
Saltstack Search vendor "Saltstack"		Salt Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt"				>= 2017.5.0 < 2017.7.4 Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt" and version " >= 2017.5.0 < 2017.7.4"		-		Affected
Saltstack Search vendor "Saltstack"		Salt Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt"				>= 2017.7.5 < 2017.7.8 Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt" and version " >= 2017.7.5 < 2017.7.8"		-		Affected
Saltstack Search vendor "Saltstack"		Salt Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt"				>= 2018.2.0 < 2018.3.5 Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt" and version " >= 2018.2.0 < 2018.3.5"		-		Affected
Saltstack Search vendor "Saltstack"		Salt Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt"				>= 2019.2.0 < 2019.2.5 Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt" and version " >= 2019.2.0 < 2019.2.5"		-		Affected
Saltstack Search vendor "Saltstack"		Salt Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt"				>= 3000.0 < 3000.3 Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt" and version " >= 3000.0 < 3000.3"		-		Affected
Saltstack Search vendor "Saltstack"		Salt Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt"				3001 Search vendor "Saltstack" for product "Salt" and version "3001"		-		Affected
Debian Search vendor "Debian"		Debian Linux Search vendor "Debian" for product "Debian Linux"				9.0 Search vendor "Debian" for product "Debian Linux" and version "9.0"		-		Affected
Debian Search vendor "Debian"		Debian Linux Search vendor "Debian" for product "Debian Linux"				10.0 Search vendor "Debian" for product "Debian Linux" and version "10.0"		-		Affected