CVE-2020-25592 — salt
CRITICALCVE-2020-25592 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Improper Authentication vulnerability in salt. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for salt — see the affected versions and patch details below.
SaltStack Salt Improper Validation of eauth credentials and tokens in salt-netapi
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2020-25592 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE sits: patch-first territory.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,238 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
salt🐍salt🐍salt🐍salt🐍salt🐍salt🐍salt🐍salt+1 moreReal-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
In SaltStack Salt through 3002, salt-netapi improperly validates eauth credentials and tokens. A user can bypass authentication and invoke Salt SSH.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | salt | all versions | 2015.8.13pip install --upgrade 'salt==2015.8.13' |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 2016.3.0&&< 2016.3.8 | 2016.3.8pip install --upgrade 'salt==2016.3.8' |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 2016.11.0&&< 2016.11.10 | 2016.11.10pip install --upgrade 'salt==2016.11.10' |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 2017.5.0&&< 2017.7.8 | 2017.7.8pip install --upgrade 'salt==2017.7.8' |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 2018.2.0&&< 2018.3.5 | 2018.3.5pip install --upgrade 'salt==2018.3.5' |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 2019.2.0&&< 2019.2.7 | 2019.2.7pip install --upgrade 'salt==2019.2.7' |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & 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 2015.8.13 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-25592 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.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2020-25592 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2020-25592. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2020-25592 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2020-25592 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.