How severe is CVE-2021-3197?

CVE-2021-3197 has a CVSS score of 9.8/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2021-3197?

CVE-2021-3197 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-2021-3197?

Update salt to 2015.8.13 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-3197 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2021-3197 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-2021-3197 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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.

Is CVE-2021-3197 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2021-3197 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2021-3197?

CVE-2021-3197 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 71.7%, 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-2021-3197?

CVE-2021-3197 is classified as CWE-74 (CWE-74). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2021-3197 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2021-3197 was published on February 27, 2021 and was last updated on October 20, 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-2021-3197 — salt

CRITICAL

CVE-2021-3197 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-74 vulnerability in salt. EPSS puts its 30-day exploitation probability at 71.7% (99th percentile). A fix is available for salt — see the affected versions and patch details below.

SaltStack Salt is vulnerable to shell injection via ProxyCommand argument

Also known asGHSA-8rp6-x3r7-5qw3PYSEC-2021-57

Published

Feb 27, 2021

Updated

Oct 20, 2026

Affected

9 pkgs

Patched

8 / 9

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 7, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

71.7%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very 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

An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt before 3002.5. The salt-api's ssh client is vulnerable to a shell injection by including ProxyCommand in an argument, or via ssh_options provided in an API request.

Affected Packages

9 total 8 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&&< 2016.11.5	2016.11.5`pip install --upgrade 'salt==2016.11.5'`
🐍PyPI	`salt`	≥ 2016.11.7&&< 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	No fix
🐍PyPI	`salt`	≥ 2019.2.0&&< 2019.2.8	2019.2.8`pip install --upgrade 'salt==2019.2.8'`

Affected Products

3 products · 21 configurations

debian linuxdebian

3 versions

9.010.011.0

fedorafedoraproject

3 versions

323334

Application

saltsaltstack

≥ 3002 && ≤ 2018.3.5

range

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-2021-3197 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2021-3197 in your dependencies?

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