How severe is CVE-2020-25592?

CVE-2020-25592 has a CVSS score of 9.8/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2020-25592?

CVE-2020-25592 affects the following packages: salt (PyPI), salt (PyPI), salt (PyPI), salt (PyPI), salt (PyPI), salt (PyPI), salt (PyPI), salt (PyPI), and 1 more. Ecosystems affected: PyPI.

How do I fix CVE-2020-25592?

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.

How do I detect CVE-2020-25592 in my PyPI dependencies?

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.

How do I mitigate CVE-2020-25592 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.

Is CVE-2020-25592 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 1 known exploit references for CVE-2020-25592, including 1 in-the-wild exploitation observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2020-25592?

CVE-2020-25592 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 56.8%, placing it in the 99th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2020-25592?

CVE-2020-25592 is classified as Improper Authentication (CWE-287). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2020-25592 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2020-25592 was published on November 6, 2020 and was last updated on October 24, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐍

🐍 PyPI

Not in CISA KEV

CRITICAL severity

CVE-2020-25592 — salt

CRITICAL

CVE-2020-25592 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Improper Authentication vulnerability in salt. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, 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

Also known asGHSA-29j3-2446-5j4wPYSEC-2020-106

Published

Nov 6, 2020

Updated

Oct 24, 2026

Affected

9 pkgs

Patched

9 / 9

Exploits

1 known

Exploitation data as of Nov 5, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

56.8%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

High Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs99th percentile — riskier than 99% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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

9 pkgs affected

🐍salt🐍salt🐍salt🐍salt🐍salt🐍salt🐍salt🐍salt+1 more

Real-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

9 total 9 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐍PyPI	`salt`	all versions	2015.8.13`pip install --upgrade 'salt==2015.8.13'`
🐍PyPI	`salt`	≥ 2016.3.0&&< 2016.3.8	2016.3.8`pip install --upgrade 'salt==2016.3.8'`
🐍PyPI	`salt`	≥ 2016.11.0&&< 2016.11.10	2016.11.10`pip install --upgrade 'salt==2016.11.10'`
🐍PyPI	`salt`	≥ 2017.5.0&&< 2017.7.8	2017.7.8`pip install --upgrade 'salt==2017.7.8'`
🐍PyPI	`salt`	≥ 2018.2.0&&< 2018.3.5	2018.3.5`pip install --upgrade 'salt==2018.3.5'`
🐍PyPI	`salt`	≥ 2019.2.0&&< 2019.2.7	2019.2.7`pip install --upgrade 'salt==2019.2.7'`

Affected Products

2 products · 16 configurations

debian linuxdebian

2 versions

9.010.0

Application

saltsaltstack

≥ 3000.0 && < 3000.3

1 version

3001

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

In SaltStack Salt through 3002, salt-netapi improperly validates eauth c…

github.comMetasploitDec 2020

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
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
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.

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.

Red HatImportant

Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 shipped salt for the usage of Red Hat Storage Console 2 (RHSCON-2), which required salt to administrate ceph nodes. RHSCON-2 has reached End Of Life, hence salt is no longer used and supported. Therefore, the salt package provided by Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 has been marked as 'will not fix'.

Workaround published by Red Hat

Red 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.

Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2020-25592 (CC BY 4.0)

Frequently Asked Questions

In SaltStack Salt through 3002, salt-netapi improperly validates eauth credentials and tokens. A user can bypass authentication and invoke Salt SSH.

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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