{"id":"CVE-2020-16846","url":"https://www.cyber-defence.io/tools/cve/CVE-2020-16846","generatedAt":"2026-10-27T20:21:50.097Z","title":"SaltStack Salt Shell Injection Vulnerability","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.","published":"2020-11-06T08:15:13.000Z","lastModified":"2026-06-17T02:58:08.000Z","status":"Analyzed","sourceIdentifier":"cve@mitre.org","cvss":{"version":"3.1","score":9.8,"severity":"CRITICAL","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"},"cwe":["CWE-78"],"affected":["saltstack/salt","debian/debian linux","fedoraproject/fedora","opensuse/leap"],"epss":{"score":0.99585,"percentile":0.99946,"date":"2026-10-26","history":[]},"kev":{"listed":true,"dateAdded":"2021-11-03","dueDate":"2022-05-03","knownRansomwareCampaignUse":"Unknown","notes":"Apply updates per vendor instructions.\nhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-16846"},"exploits":{"count":0,"verified":false,"firstPublished":null,"source":"Exploit-DB (https://gitlab.com/exploit-database/exploitdb)","entries":[]},"verdict":{"level":"urgent","text":"Known to be exploited in the wild (CISA KEV, CISA remediation deadline 3 May 2022). Treat as an emergency change: patch or isolate now, then hunt for prior compromise."},"changes":[],"references":[{"url":"http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-11/msg00029.html","tags":["Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/160039/SaltStack-Salt-REST-API-Arbitrary-Command-Execution.html","tags":["Exploit","Third Party Advisory","VDB Entry"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases","tags":["Release Notes"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/12/msg00007.html","tags":["Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/01/msg00000.html","tags":["Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TPOGB2F6XUAIGFDTOCQDNB2VIXFXHWMA/","tags":["Release Notes"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202011-13","tags":["Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4837","tags":["Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://www.saltstack.com/blog/on-november-3-2020-saltstack-publicly-disclosed-three-new-cves/","tags":["Broken Link","Vendor Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1379/","tags":["Third Party Advisory","VDB Entry"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1380/","tags":["Third Party Advisory","VDB Entry"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1381/","tags":["Third Party Advisory","VDB Entry"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1382/","tags":["Third Party Advisory","VDB Entry"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1383/","tags":["Third Party Advisory","VDB Entry"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-11/msg00029.html","tags":["Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/160039/SaltStack-Salt-REST-API-Arbitrary-Command-Execution.html","tags":["Exploit","Third Party Advisory","VDB Entry"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases","tags":["Release Notes"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/12/msg00007.html","tags":["Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/01/msg00000.html","tags":["Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TPOGB2F6XUAIGFDTOCQDNB2VIXFXHWMA/","tags":["Release Notes"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202011-13","tags":["Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4837","tags":["Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://www.saltstack.com/blog/on-november-3-2020-saltstack-publicly-disclosed-three-new-cves/","tags":["Broken Link","Vendor Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1379/","tags":["Third Party Advisory","VDB Entry"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1380/","tags":["Third Party Advisory","VDB Entry"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1381/","tags":["Third Party Advisory","VDB Entry"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1382/","tags":["Third Party Advisory","VDB Entry"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1383/","tags":["Third Party Advisory","VDB Entry"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-16846","tags":["US Government Resource"],"source":"134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0"}],"sources":{"nvd":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-16846","epss":"https://www.first.org/epss/","kev":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","exploitdb":"https://www.exploit-db.com/"},"licence":"CC BY 4.0 — link back to the CVE Explorer if you publish the results; upstream data remains subject to its own terms."}