SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass Vulnerability
SaltStack Salt contains an authentication bypass vulnerability in the salt-master process ClearFuncs due to improperly validating method calls. The vulnerability allows a remote user to access some methods without authentication, which can be used to retrieve user tokens from the salt master and/or run commands on salt minions. Salt users who follow fundamental internet security guidelines and best practices are not affected by this vulnerability.
A remote attacker, without authentication, can achieve full data confidentiality loss, arbitrary modification of data, complete denial of service or system unavailability. Federal agencies are required to remediate by 2022-05-03 under CISA BOD 22-01.
This vulnerability affects SaltStack Salt. An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt before 2019.2.4 and 3000 before 3000.2. The salt-master process ClearFuncs class does not properly validate method calls. This allows a remote user to access some methods without authentication. These methods can be used to retrieve user tokens from the salt master and/or run arbitrary commands on salt minions. Exploitation requires remote network access, low attack complexity, no authentication required, and no user interaction required.
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Phishing link
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Malicious file
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Server compromised
Probably yes if any of these apply:
Active exploitation documented in the wild. Threat-research write-up: http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157560/Saltstack-3000.1-Remote-Code-Execution.html
Manual remediation steps
Apply the Vendor Patch
This vulnerability is in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog — apply the vendor's security update as soon as possible.
CISA required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.
References
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References