What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-16846?

CVE-2020-16846 has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8 (Critical). CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. EPSS exploitation probability: 99.6%.

Is there a public PoC exploit available for CVE-2020-16846?

Yes, a public proof-of-concept exploit is available for CVE-2020-16846. Prioritise patching immediately. EPSS: 99.6%.

Is there a patch available for CVE-2020-16846?

Yes, a patch is available for CVE-2020-16846. Update the affected software to the latest version immediately.

Saltstack CVE-2020-16846

CRITICAL

OS Command Injection (CWE-78)

2020-11-06 cve@mitre.org

Command Injection Debian Debian Linux Fedora Leap Salt Opensuse Saltstack Fedoraproject

9.8

CVSS 3.1 · NVD

View

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness	CWE CWE-78 OWASP Top 10:2025 A05:2025 - Injection ASVS 5.0 V1 - Encoding and Sanitization OS command sanitization, avoid shell exec MITRE ATT&CK 2 techniques across 1 tactic: Execution The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. Sign in to read
Impact	CVSS score of 9.8 (CRITICAL). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required. Public proof-of-concept exploit code is available.
Exploit ScenarioDerived	A remote attacker could execute arbitrary operating system commands on the host by sending crafted requests to the affected application. No authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability.

Emergency Immediate action required. Why: In CISA KEV with patch available.

Exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) Patch available 99.6% exploitation probability (EPSS)

Get an e-mail when this CVE is exploited, patched or re-scored. Free account.

Alert me

AnalysisAI

An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt through 3002. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.

RemediationAI

No vendor patch is available at time of analysis. Monitor vendor advisories for updates. Avoid passing user input to shell commands. Use language-specific APIs instead of shell execution. Apply strict input validation with allowlists.

Affected Packages

pypi salt fix: 2015.8.10, 2015.8.13, 2016.3.4, 2016.3.6, 2016.3.8, 2016.11.3, 2016.11.6, 2016.11.10, 2017.7.4, 2017.7.8, 2018.3.5, 2019.2.5, 2019.2.6, 3000.3, 3000.4, 3001.2, 3002.1

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in pypi

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

This vulnerability is classified as OS Command Injection (CWE-78), which allows attackers to execute arbitrary operating system commands on the host. An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt through 3002. Sending crafted web requests to the Salt API, with the SSH client enabled, can result in shell injection. Affected products include: Saltstack Salt, Debian Debian Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Opensuse Leap. Version information: through 3002..

Know when Saltstack gets its next vulnerability

Watch products and get an email when something new is published
Check this CVE against your own stack and servers
Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

Continue with Google Continue with GitHub

No credit card · 7-day full trial

Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 9.8 CRITICAL

AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

Lifecycle Timeline

Added to CISA KEV

Jul 14, 2026 - 04:22 CISA

CVE Published

Nov 06, 2020 - 08:15 nvd

CRITICAL 9.8

DescriptionNVD

An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt through 3002. Sending crafted web requests to the Salt API, with the SSH client enabled, can result in shell injection.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score

99.6%

Top 0% exploitable

Exploit

POC

Public exploit code exists

Data Quality

4 sources

Confidence: Medium

NVD

CVE.org

CISA KEV

EPSS POC (2)

GitHub

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue

Severity CRITICAL

CISA KEV Yes

Public POC Yes

EPSS 99.6%

Patch available Yes

Active threat Yes

Deciding rule

In CISA KEV with patch available

What every action level means

Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.

Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.

Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived

Immediate

Exploitation· derived

Active

System Exposure· derived

Open

Automatable· derived

Yes

Human Impact· derived

High

Priority Score

234

Low Medium High Critical

KEV: +50

EPSS: +100

CVSS: +49

PoC: +20

Weaponized: +15

Threat intel: 0

Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

OS Command Injection CRITICAL

OS command injection occurs when an application passes unsanitized user input directly into system shell commands.

Affected Products (CPE)NVD

cpe:2.3:a:saltstack:salt:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

cpe:2.3:a:saltstack:salt:3001:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

cpe:2.3:a:saltstack:salt:3002:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:31:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

More in Saltstack

View all

CVE-2021-25281 CRITICAL Emergency POC

9.8 Feb 27

An issue was discovered in through SaltStack Salt before 3002.5. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability

CVE-2020-25592 CRITICAL Emergency POC

9.8 Nov 06

In SaltStack Salt through 3002, salt-netapi improperly validates eauth credentials and tokens. Rated critical severity (

CVE-2020-11651 CRITICAL Emergency POC

9.8 Apr 30

An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt before 2019.2.4 and 3000 before 3000.2. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), th

CVE-2021-25282 CRITICAL Emergency POC

9.1 Feb 27

An issue was discovered in through SaltStack Salt before 3002.5. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability

CVE-2019-1010259 CRITICAL Act Now POC

9.8 Jul 18

SaltStack Salt 2018.3, 2019.2 is affected by: SQL Injection. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is r

CVE-2020-11652 MEDIUM This Month POC

6.5 Apr 30

An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt before 2019.2.4 and 3000 before 3000.2. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this

CVE-2021-31607 HIGH This Week POC

7.8 Apr 23

In SaltStack Salt 2016.9 through 3002.6, a command injection vulnerability exists in the snapper module that allows for

CVE-2013-6617 CRITICAL Act Now

10.0 Nov 05

The salt master in Salt (aka SaltStack) 0.11.0 through 0.17.0 does not properly drop group privileges, which makes it ea

CVE-2013-4437 CRITICAL Act Now

10.0 Nov 05

Unspecified vulnerability in salt-ssh in Salt (aka SaltStack) 0.17.0 has unspecified impact and vectors related to "inse

CVE-2017-12791 CRITICAL Act Now

9.8 Aug 23

Directory traversal vulnerability in minion id validation in SaltStack Salt before 2016.11.7 and 2017.7.x before 2017.7.

CVE-2015-6941 CRITICAL Act Now

9.8 Aug 09

win_useradd, salt-cloud and the Linode driver in salt 2015.5.x before 2015.5.6, and 2015.8.x before 2015.8.1 leak passwo

CVE-2017-14695 CRITICAL Act Now

9.8 Oct 24

Directory traversal vulnerability in minion id validation in SaltStack Salt before 2016.3.8, 2016.11.x before 2016.11.8,

Same weakness CWE-78 – OS Command Injection

View all

CVE-2019-15107 CRITICAL POC

9.8

CVE-2024-51378 CRITICAL POC

9.8

CVE-2014-6271 CRITICAL POC

9.8

CVE-2018-11138 CRITICAL POC

9.8

CVE-2014-6278 HIGH POC

8.8

CVE-2020-9054 CRITICAL POC

9.8

CVE-2017-6334 HIGH POC

8.8

CVE-2024-50603 CRITICAL POC

10.0

Same technique Command Injection

View all

CVE-2024-21887 CRITICAL POC

9.1

CVE-2016-3081 HIGH POC

8.1

CVE-2012-1823 CRITICAL POC

9.8

CVE-2016-1555 CRITICAL POC

9.8

CVE-2024-55956 CRITICAL POC

9.8

References

Advisories & patches

ADVISORY https://www.saltstack.com/blog/on-november-3-2020-saltstack-publicly-disclosed-three-new-cves/ REF http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-11/msg00029.html REF https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases REF https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/12/msg00007.html REF https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/01/msg00000.html REF https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TPOGB2F6XUAIGFDTOCQDNB2VIXFXHWMA/ REF https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202011-13 REF https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-16846 REF https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4837 REF https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1379/ REF https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1380/ REF https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1381/ REF https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1382/ REF https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1383/

Search Externally

GitHub PoC

Exploit-DB PacketStorm Snyk Rapid7 Nuclei Templates Trickest PoC

Back