CVE-2021-25282
CRITICALCVE-2021-25282 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.1) Path Traversal vulnerability in salt. 2 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2021-25282 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
SaltStack Salt Directory Traversal vulnerability
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-2021-25282 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 368,770 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 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
An issue was discovered in through SaltStack Salt before 3002.5. The salt.wheel.pillar_roots.write method is vulnerable to directory traversal.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | salt | all versions | 2015.8.13 |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 2016.3.0&&< 2016.11.5 | 2016.11.5 |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 2016.11.7&&< 2016.11.10 | 2016.11.10 |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 2017.5.0&&< 2017.7.8 | 2017.7.8 |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 2018.2.0 | No fix |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 2019.2.0&&< 2019.2.8 | 2019.2.8 |
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. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update salt to 2015.8.13 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-25282 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 pinpoints whether CVE-2021-25282 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2021-25282. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-25282 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2021-25282 across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.