CVE-2023-34049 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.7) vulnerability in salt. A fix is available for salt — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Salt preflight script could be attacker controlled
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-34049.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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
salt🐍saltReal-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
The Salt-SSH pre-flight option copies the script to the target at a predictable path, which allows an attacker to force Salt-SSH to run their script. If an attacker has access to the target VM and knows the path to the pre-flight script before it runs they can ensure Salt-SSH runs their script with the privileges of the user running Salt-SSH. Do not make the copy path on the target predictable and ensure we check return codes of the scp command if the copy fails.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | salt | all versions | 3005.4pip install --upgrade 'salt==3005.4' |
| 🐍PyPI | salt | ≥ 3006.0rc1&&< 3006.4 | 3006.4pip install --upgrade 'salt==3006.4' |
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 3005.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-34049 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
Is CVE-2023-34049 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.