CVE-2020-11651: SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass Vulnerability
- Is it exploited?
Yes. CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on , 552 days after the CVE record was published.
- How likely is exploitation in the next 30 days?
- 96.6%
EPSS score, percentile 99.9 of all scored records
- How severe?
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS v3.1 base score, from CISA's enrichment of the record
- What should I do?
CISA deadline . Apply updates per vendor instructions.
- Which versions are affected?
Not stated. The CVE record gives vendor and product as “n/a” and the version as “unspecified”.
Source: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, 2026.10.28, as of ; FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), v2026.06.15, as of ; CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of . About the data.
What to do
Required action, set by CISA
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
CISA due date for this action: .
Advisories and patches
- openSUSE-SU-2020:0564
- DSA-4676
- 20200528 SaltStack FrameWork Vulnerabilities Affecting Cisco Products
- openSUSE-SU-2020:1074
- USN-4459-1
Linked from CISA's catalog entry
Affected products and versions
The CVE record does not name affected products or versions: vendor and product are “n/a” and the version is “unspecified”.
Source: CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of . About the data.
About this vulnerability
SaltStack Salt contains an authentication bypass vulnerability in the salt-master process ClearFuncs due to improperly validating method calls. The vulnerability allows a remote user to access some methods without authentication, which can be used to retrieve user tokens from the salt master and/or run commands on salt minions. Salt users who follow fundamental internet security guidelines and best practices are not affected by this vulnerability.
Summary: CISA's KEV catalog, as of .
- CISA added CVE-2020-11651 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 3 Nov 2021.
- CISA's ransomware flag for this entry is "Unknown": no evidence of ransomware use in the catalog, which is not proof of none.
- The due date CISA sets for the required action is 3 May 2022.
- The CVE record was published on 30 Apr 2020, 552 days before it was added to KEV.
- The CVE record carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (Critical), taken from CISA's enrichment of the record.
- FIRST's EPSS model puts the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days at 96.6% (percentile 99.9), as of 28 Oct 2026.
- CISA's SSVC assessment in the CVE record: exploitation active, automatable yes, technical impact total.
Source: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, 2026.10.28, as of ; CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of ; FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), v2026.06.15, as of . About the data.
Description
An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt before 2019.2.4 and 3000 before 3000.2. The salt-master process ClearFuncs class does not properly validate method calls. This allows a remote user to access some methods without authentication. These methods can be used to retrieve user tokens from the salt master and/or run arbitrary commands on salt minions.
Source: CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of . About the data.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| CVE record published | |
| Added to CISA KEV | |
| CISA due date for the required action | |
| CVE record last updated |
References
- docs.saltstack.com
- github.com
- packetstormsecurity.com
- vmware.com
- packetstormsecurity.com
- [debian-lts-announce] 20200530 [SECURITY] [DLA 2223-1] salt security update
More exploited SaltStack vulnerabilities
- CVE-2020-11652: SaltStack Salt Path Traversal Vulnerability
- CVE-2020-16846: SaltStack Salt Shell Injection Vulnerability