CVE-2017-14696 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in salt. A fix is available for salt — see the affected versions and patch details below.
SaltStack Salt Denial of Service via a crafted authentication request
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
salt🐍salt🐍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
SaltStack Salt before 2016.3.8, 2016.11.x before 2016.11.8, and 2017.7.x before 2017.7.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted authentication request.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | salt | all versions | 2016.3.8pip install --upgrade 'salt==2016.3.8' |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 2016.11.0&&< 2016.11.8 | 2016.11.8pip install --upgrade 'salt==2016.11.8' |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 2017.7.0&&< 2017.7.2 | 2017.7.2pip install --upgrade 'salt==2017.7.2' |
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 2016.3.8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2017-14696 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2017-14696 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.