{"answers":{"affected":"19 open source packages ship an affected version, including salt. It affects 3 products.","exploited":"It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2021-25281 exists.","fix":"Upgrade salt to a fixed version for your release line: 2015.8.10, 2015.8.13, 2016.3.4 or 2016.3.6.","what":"CVE-2021-25281 is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 27 Feb 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim."},"fix_prompt":"Check this codebase for CVE-2021-25281 and fix it if it is affected.\n\nWhat it is: CVE-2021-25281 is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 27 Feb 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.\nExploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2021-25281 exists.\n\nAffected packages and fixed versions:\n- salt (PyPI): affected all versions; fixed in 2015.8.10, 2015.8.13, 2016.3.4, 2016.3.6, 2016.3.8, 2016.11.3, 2016.11.5, 2016.11.10, 2017.7.8, 2019.2.0rc1, 2019.2.5, 2019.2.8, 3000.6, 3001.4, 3002.5\n- salt (PyPI): affected all versions; fixed in 2015.8.13\n- salt (PyPI): affected all versions; fixed in 2015.8.13\n- salt (PyPI): affected from 2016.11.7; fixed in 2016.11.10\n- salt (PyPI): affected from 2016.11.7; fixed in 2016.11.10\n- salt (PyPI): affected from 2016.3.0; fixed in 2016.11.5\n- salt (PyPI): affected from 2016.3.0; fixed in 2016.11.5\n- salt (PyPI): affected from 2017.5.0; fixed in 2017.7.8\n- salt (PyPI): affected from 2017.5.0; fixed in 2017.7.8\n- salt (PyPI): affected from 2018.2.0 up to 2018.3.5; no fix listed\n- salt (PyPI): affected from 2018.2.0 up to 2018.3.5; no fix listed\n- salt (PyPI): affected from 2019.2.0; fixed in 2019.2.8\n\nTask:\n1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.\n2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.\n3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.\n4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.\n5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.\n\nReference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25281/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25281/index.md)","id":"CVE-2021-25281","markdown":"https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25281/index.md","name":"CVE-2021-25281","record":{"aliases":["GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p","PYSEC-2021-50","UBUNTU-CVE-2021-25281"],"analysis":{"component_type":"server_software","fix_type":"upgrade","impacts":["code_execution","privilege_escalation"],"network_reachable":"yes","non_default_config":false,"product_category":"SaltStack configuration management","requires_auth":"none","summary":"Attackers can bypass authentication in salt-api to remotely execute arbitrary wheel modules on the master, leading to full system compromise.","user_interaction":"not_required","vuln_class":"auth_bypass"},"analysis_generated_by":"qwen3.8-flash-next","assigner":"mitre","cpe":[{"product":"debian_linux","vendor":"debian"},{"product":"fedora","vendor":"fedoraproject"},{"product":"salt","vendor":"saltstack"}],"cvss":{"score":9.8,"severity":"critical","source":"nvd","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","version":"3.1"},"cwes":[{"id":"CWE-287","name":"Improper Authentication"}],"description":"An issue was discovered in through SaltStack Salt before 3002.5. salt-api does not honor eauth credentials for the wheel_async client. Thus, an attacker can remotely run any wheel modules on the master.","ecosystems":["PyPI"],"exploits":{"exploitdb":0,"first_seen":"2021-02-25","github_poc":1,"max_poc_stars":27,"metasploit":1,"nuclei":1,"refs":[{"date":"2021-02-26T12:08:25Z","kind":"github_poc","ref":"https://github.com/Immersive-Labs-Sec/CVE-2021-25281","stars":27,"title":"Chaining CVE-2021-25281 and CVE-2021-25282 to exploit a SaltStack"},{"date":"2021-02-25","kind":"metasploit","ref":"exploit/linux/http/saltstack_salt_wheel_async_rce","stars":null,"title":"SaltStack Salt API Unauthenticated RCE through wheel_async client"},{"date":null,"kind":"nuclei","ref":"http/cves/2021/CVE-2021-25281.yaml","stars":null,"title":"SaltStack Salt \u003c3002.5 - Auth Bypass"}],"tier":"weaponised"},"has_fix":true,"headline":"SaltStack Salt Improper Authentication vulnerability","id":"CVE-2021-25281","indexable":true,"kev":null,"kind":"cve","links":{"ecosystem":"PyPI","product":"debian:debian_linux","products":["debian:debian_linux","fedoraproject:fedora","saltstack:salt"],"type":"auth_bypass","year":"2021"},"n_packages":19,"n_references":11,"next":{"headline":"SaltStack Salt Directory Traversal vulnerability","id":"CVE-2021-25282"},"packages":[{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["2015.8.10","2015.8.13","2016.3.4","2016.3.6","2016.3.8","2016.11.3","2016.11.5","2016.11.10","2017.7.8","2019.2.0rc1","2019.2.5","2019.2.8","3000.6","3001.4","3002.5"],"introduced":["0","2015.8.11","2016.3.0","2016.3.5","2016.3.7","2016.11.0","2016.11.4","2016.11.7","2017.7.0","2018.3.0rc1","2019.2.0","2019.2.6","3000","3001","3002"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":"pkg:pypi/salt","source":"PYSEC-2021-50"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["2015.8.13"],"introduced":["0"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":null,"source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["2015.8.13"],"introduced":["0"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":"pkg:pypi/salt","source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["2016.11.10"],"introduced":["2016.11.7"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":null,"source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["2016.11.10"],"introduced":["2016.11.7"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":"pkg:pypi/salt","source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["2016.11.5"],"introduced":["2016.3.0"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":null,"source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["2016.11.5"],"introduced":["2016.3.0"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":"pkg:pypi/salt","source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["2017.7.8"],"introduced":["2017.5.0"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":null,"source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["2017.7.8"],"introduced":["2017.5.0"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":"pkg:pypi/salt","source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":[],"introduced":["2018.2.0"],"last_affected":["2018.3.5"],"package":"salt","purl":null,"source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":[],"introduced":["2018.2.0"],"last_affected":["2018.3.5"],"package":"salt","purl":"pkg:pypi/salt","source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["2019.2.8"],"introduced":["2019.2.0"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":null,"source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["2019.2.8"],"introduced":["2019.2.0"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":"pkg:pypi/salt","source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["3000.7"],"introduced":["3000"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":null,"source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["3000.7"],"introduced":["3000"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":"pkg:pypi/salt","source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["3001.5"],"introduced":["3001"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":null,"source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["3001.5"],"introduced":["3001"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":"pkg:pypi/salt","source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["3002.3"],"introduced":["3002"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":null,"source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"},{"ecosystem":"PyPI","fixed":["3002.3"],"introduced":["3002"],"last_affected":[],"package":"salt","purl":"pkg:pypi/salt","source":"GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37p"}],"prev":{"headline":"Cross-site scripting in n/a","id":"CVE-2021-25278"},"products":["n/a"],"published":"2021-02-27","related":[{"cvss_score":10,"headline":"ProFTPD Improper Access Control","id":"CVE-2015-3306","kev_date_added":"2026-10-08","published":"2015-05-18"},{"cvss_score":9.9,"headline":"RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data","id":"CVE-2025-49113","kev_date_added":"2026-02-20","published":"2025-06-02"},{"cvss_score":9.8,"headline":"GNU InetUtils Argument Injection","id":"CVE-2026-24061","kev_date_added":"2026-01-26","published":"2026-01-21"},{"cvss_score":9.8,"headline":"Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions","id":"CVE-2025-39682","kev_date_added":"2026-09-18","published":"2025-09-05"},{"cvss_score":9.8,"headline":"Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free","id":"CVE-2024-9680","kev_date_added":"2024-10-15","published":"2024-10-09"},{"cvss_score":9.8,"headline":"RARLAB UnRAR Directory Traversal","id":"CVE-2022-30333","kev_date_added":"2022-08-09","published":"2022-05-09"},{"cvss_score":9.8,"headline":"Roundcube Webmail SQL Injection","id":"CVE-2021-44026","kev_date_added":"2023-06-22","published":"2021-11-19"}],"sources":[{"class":"attribution","licence":"CVE Terms of Use (MITRE)","name":"CVE List","prefix":"CVE"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"CC BY 4.0","name":"GitHub Advisory Database","prefix":"GHSA"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"CC BY 4.0","name":"PyPA Advisory Database","prefix":"PYSEC"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"US public information, NVD API terms","name":"NVD"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"CWE Terms of Use","name":"CWE (MITRE)"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"FIRST CVSS licence","name":"CVSS (FIRST)"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"BSD-3-Clause","name":"Metasploit"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"MIT","name":"Nuclei templates"},{"class":"open","licence":"CC0","name":"PoC-in-GitHub"}],"ssvc":{"automatable":"yes","exploitation":"none","technical_impact":"total"},"state":"PUBLISHED","updated":"2024-11-19","vendors":["n/a"]},"summary":"Attackers can bypass authentication in salt-api to remotely execute arbitrary wheel modules on the master, leading to full system compromise.","url":"https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25281/"}