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PatchSiren cyber security CVE debrief

CVE-2020-11651 SaltStack CVE debrief

CVE-2020-11651 is a SaltStack Salt authentication bypass issue that CISA has listed in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. In the supplied corpus, CISA’s guidance is straightforward: apply vendor updates per SaltStack instructions and treat affected deployments as a priority for remediation.

Vendor
SaltStack
Product
Salt
CVSS
Unknown
CISA KEV
Listed
Original CVE published
2021-11-03
Original CVE updated
2021-11-03
Advisory published
2021-11-03
Advisory updated
2021-11-03

Who should care

Organizations running SaltStack Salt, especially teams responsible for configuration management, infrastructure automation, and any Salt instances reachable from less-trusted networks. Security and patch-management teams should also treat this as a priority because CISA lists it as known exploited.

Technical summary

The supplied official data identifies CVE-2020-11651 as an authentication bypass in SaltStack Salt. The corpus does not include the underlying vendor advisory text, affected-version details, or a CVSS score, so the safe, evidence-based takeaway is limited to the verified classification and response: it is a known exploited vulnerability and CISA directs organizations to apply updates per vendor instructions.

Defensive priority

High

Recommended defensive actions

  • Inventory all SaltStack Salt deployments and determine which systems are affected.
  • Apply vendor updates per SaltStack guidance as soon as possible.
  • Prioritize internet-facing or broadly reachable Salt management endpoints.
  • Review access controls around Salt administration interfaces and limit exposure to trusted networks.
  • Monitor authentication-related logs and administrative activity for unusual behavior.
  • Track remediation against the CISA KEV due date of 2022-05-03 in the supplied timeline.

Evidence notes

Evidence is limited to the official CVE record, NVD detail page, and CISA KEV entry supplied in the corpus. CISA lists the issue as a known exploited vulnerability, names the vendor/product as SaltStack Salt, and instructs users to apply updates per vendor instructions. No CVSS score or detailed technical write-up was provided in the source corpus, so no additional exploitability claims are made here.

Sources and references

Verified primary and authoritative sources

  • CVE-2020-11651 CVE Program record

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-11651

    CVE Program - Official CVE Program record with source-provided CVE metadata.

  • CVE-2020-11651 NVD vulnerability detail

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-11651

    NIST National Vulnerability Database - Official NIST NVD detail page and source-specific vulnerability assessment.

  • CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog

    Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency - Official CISA catalog of vulnerabilities known to be exploited in the wild.

Supplemental references

  • Source item URL

    Unverified legacy reference

    URL: https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/feeds/known_exploited_vulnerabilities.json

    cisa_kev

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.