CVE-2013-6617 — salt
HIGHCVE-2013-6617 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-264 vulnerability in salt. A fix is available for salt — see the affected versions and patch details below.
SaltStack Privilege Escalation vulnerability
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
saltReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
The salt master in Salt (aka SaltStack) 0.11.0 through 0.17.0 does not properly drop group privileges, which makes it easier for remote attackers to gain privileges.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 0.11.0&&< 0.17.1 | 0.17.1pip install --upgrade 'salt==0.17.1' |
Affected Products
saltsaltstackDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for salt, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update salt to 0.17.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2013-6617 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2013-6617 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.