# CVE-2020-16846

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.

- Page: https://www.vulneraibility.com/cve/CVE-2020-16846
- CVSS: 9.8
- Known exploited: yes, in CISA KEV since 2021-11-03; CISA due date 2022-05-03
- EPSS: 99.59% (percentile 99.9)
- Public exploit code: 1 Metasploit module · 2 GitHub proofs of concept · 1 Nuclei template (first 2021-10-14)
- CISA SSVC: exploitation active, automatable yes, technical impact total (assessed 2025-02-07)
- Weakness: CWE-78
- Also known as: GHSA-qr38-h96j-2j3w, PYSEC-2020-104
- Published: 2020-11-06

## Affected

- saltstack:salt
- debian:debian_linux
- fedoraproject:fedora
- opensuse:leap

## References

- [other] https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases
- [other] https://www.saltstack.com/blog/on-november-3-2020-saltstack-publicly-disclosed-three-new-cves/
- [advisory] https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TPOGB2F6XUAIGFDTOCQDNB2VIXFXHWMA/
- [advisory] http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-11/msg00029.html
- [advisory] https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202011-13
- [other] http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/160039/SaltStack-Salt-REST-API-Arbitrary-Command-Execution.html
- [other] https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1381/
- [other] https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1383/
- [other] https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1380/
- [other] https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1379/
- [other] https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1382/
- [other] https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/12/msg00007.html
- [advisory] https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4837
- [other] https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/01/msg00000.html
- [other] https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-16846

---
Summary, impact and action are written by the vulneraibility.com AI analysis pipeline from the CVE record, NVD, CISA and FIRST data; verify against the references.