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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.

Official resources

Publicly disclosed; CISA added the vulnerability to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03.