# CVE-2023-20897: Salt vulnerable to denial of service

> An attacker can cause the Salt master to become unresponsive by sending multiple bad packets, requiring a restart to recover.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 5 Sep 2023
- **Updated:** 13 Feb 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-vpjg-wmf8-29h9, PYSEC-2023-166, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-20897

## What is CVE-2023-20897?

CVE-2023-20897 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Saltstack Salt, published on 5 Sep 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Salt masters prior to 3005.2 or 3006.2 contain a DOS in minion return. After receiving several bad packets on the request server equal to the number of worker threads, the master will become unresponsive to return requests until restarted.

Weakness: CWE-404 (Improper Resource Shutdown or Release)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-20897?

5 open source packages ship an affected version, including salt. It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `salt` | PyPI | All versions | 3005.2 |
| `salt` | PyPI | All versions | 3005.2 |
| `salt` | PyPI | From 3006.0 | 3006.2, 3005.2 |
| `salt` | PyPI | From 3006.0rc1 | 3006.2 |
| `salt` | PyPI | From 3006.0rc1 | 3006.2 |

Products: Saltstack Salt.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-20897?

Upgrade salt to a fixed version for your release line: 3005.2 or 3006.2.

## Is CVE-2023-20897 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-20897 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Saltstack Salt

- [CVE-2013-4437](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-4437/): SaltStack insecurely uses /tmp (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2013-6617](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6617/): SaltStack Privilege Escalation vulnerability (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2021-33226](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-33226/): Code injection in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-25315](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25315/): salt-api unauthenticated remote code execution (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2018-15751](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15751/): SaltStack Salt Remote command execution and incorrect access control when using salt-api (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-20897 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-20897 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Saltstack Salt, published on 5 Sep 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-20897 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- salt (PyPI): affected all versions; fixed in 3005.2
- salt (PyPI): affected all versions; fixed in 3005.2
- salt (PyPI): affected from 3006.0; fixed in 3006.2, 3005.2
- salt (PyPI): affected from 3006.0rc1; fixed in 3006.2
- salt (PyPI): affected from 3006.0rc1; fixed in 3006.2

Task:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20897/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20897/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-20897
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-20897
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-20897

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20897/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.