CVE-2021-25282 — salt
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. A fix is available for salt — see the affected versions and patch details below.
SaltStack Salt Directory Traversal vulnerability
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2021-25282 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
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 | 2015.8.13pip install --upgrade 'salt==2015.8.13' |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 2016.3.0&&< 2016.11.5 | 2016.11.5pip install --upgrade 'salt==2016.11.5' |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 2016.11.7&&< 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 | No fix |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 2019.2.0&&< 2019.2.8 | 2019.2.8pip install --upgrade 'salt==2019.2.8' |
Affected Products
debian linuxdebianfedorafedoraprojectsaltsaltstackResearch 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-2021-25282 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.
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-2021-25282 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.