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ExploitedIn CISA KEVFix available

CVE-2020-11651

Exploitation confirmed. First attested on 2021-11-03 by CISA-ADP, CISA KEV, GCVE · kevintel.

  • Published2020-04-30

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

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.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2020-04-3017:15CVE publishedNVD
  2. 2020-05-05Exploit-DB entryExploit-DB
  3. 2021-11-03Added to the CISA KEV catalogCISA KEV
  4. 2021-11-03Listed as exploited by GCVEGCVE
  5. 2021-11-03Exploitation first reportedCISA KEV
  6. 2025-02-0713:59SSVC exploitation set to activeCISA-ADP

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-11-04 09:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-11651?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-11651?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD · OSV
Debian debian linux
BranchAffectedFixed in
8.0= 8.0no fix published
9.0= 9.0no fix published
10.0= 10.0no fix published
Canonical ubuntu linux
BranchAffectedFixed in
16.4= 16.04no fix published
18.4= 18.04no fix published
Saltstack salt
BranchAffectedFixed in
3000.x≥ 3000, < 3000.23000.2
2019.2< 2019.2.42019.2.4

2 more products in the sources.

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • python-distroSUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Python 2 15 SP3all versions · fixed in 1.5.0-3.5.1
  • python-distroSUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Python 2 15 SP2all versions · fixed in 1.5.0-3.5.1
  • python-distroSUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP3all versions · fixed in 1.5.0-3.5.1
  • python-distroSUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP2all versions · fixed in 1.5.0-3.5.1
  • python-distroSUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.0all versions · fixed in 1.5.0-3.5.1
  • python-distroopenSUSE:Leap 15.3all versions · fixed in 1.5.0-3.5.1
  • python-singledispatchSUSE:Manager Server 3.2all versions · fixed in 3.4.0.3-1.5.1
  • python-singledispatchSUSE:Manager Proxy 3.2all versions · fixed in 3.4.0.3-1.5.1

67 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2020-11651 Red Hat Product Security2 known affected

    salt: salt-master process ClearFuncs class does not properly validate method calls

    salt as a component of Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 · salt-minion as a component of Red Hat Ceph Storage 2

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. CISA’s required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.due 2022-05-03
  2. Workaround from the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2020-11651 · 2 productsRed Hat has investigated whether a possible mitigation exists for this issue, and has not been able to identify a practical example. Please update as soon as possible.
  3. No fix planned, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2020-11651 · 2 productsWill not fix

Advisories and patches

Detection

read 2026-11-03 22:42 UTC
Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
EDB-48421
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
15 repositories, unverifiedchef-cft/salt-vulnerabilitiesrossengeorgiev/salt-security-backportsdozernz/cve-2020-116510xc0d/CVE-2020-11651jasperla/CVE-2020-11651-poc
PoC-in-GitHub
Metasploit modules
2 modulesexploit/linux/misc/saltstack_salt_unauth_rcerank: greatauxiliary/gather/saltstack_salt_root_keyrank: normalModule metadata: Metasploit Framework, © Rapid7, Inc., BSD-3-Clause.
Metasploit Framework

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability

Date Added
2021-11-03
Patch Due Date
2022-05-03
Ransomware Use
Unknown
Required Action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2020-04-30
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Analyzed
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-pjhf-vpx3-33r3

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-11651?

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.

Is CVE-2020-11651 actively exploited?

Yes. CVE-2020-11651 is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, meaning it has been confirmed as actively exploited in the wild. CISA requires federal agencies to patch by 2022-05-03.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2020-11651?

CVE-2020-11651 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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Sources for this record