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PatchSiren cyber security CVE debrief

CVE-2020-16846 SaltStack CVE debrief

CVE-2020-16846 is a SaltStack Salt shell injection vulnerability that CISA lists in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The KEV entry indicates it has been observed as exploited in the wild and directs organizations to apply updates per vendor instructions. Given its known-exploitation status, this issue should be treated as a high-priority patching item.

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

Administrators and security teams responsible for SaltStack Salt deployments, especially any internet-reachable or broadly accessible management systems, should review exposure and patch promptly.

Technical summary

The available source material identifies the issue as a shell injection vulnerability in SaltStack Salt. CISA’s KEV catalog records it as a known exploited vulnerability and references vendor-directed updates as the required action. The provided sources do not include additional technical detail or a CVSS score.

Defensive priority

High

Recommended defensive actions

  • Identify all SaltStack Salt instances in the environment and confirm whether they are affected.
  • Apply vendor-recommended updates as soon as possible.
  • Review access controls and network exposure for Salt management services.
  • Monitor for signs of unauthorized command execution or other suspicious activity on exposed systems.

Evidence notes

This debrief is based only on the supplied official sources: the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities entry, the CVE record, and the NVD detail page. The timeline provided shows the CVE published and modified on 2021-11-03, which matches the KEV date added. No CVSS score was supplied in the corpus.

Sources and references

Verified primary and authoritative sources

  • CVE-2020-16846 CVE Program record

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-16846

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

  • CVE-2020-16846 NVD vulnerability detail

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-16846

    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.