GHSA-8rp6-x3r7-5qw3 CVE-2021-3197 PYSEC-2021-57

SaltStack Salt is vulnerable to shell injection via ProxyCommand argument

Critical PyPI

Severity: 9.8 / 10; Critical · CVSS 3.1
Exploit chance (EPSS): 71.68%; Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 99.42% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited: No; Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness: CWE-74 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component ('Injection')
Fix: 2015.8.13; Upgrade salt to this version or later

Description

An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt before 3002.5. The salt-api's ssh client is vulnerable to a shell injection by including ProxyCommand in an argument, or via ssh_options provided in an API request.

Affected versions

PyPI

Package	Vulnerable	Fixed in
salt	`< 2015.8.13`	`2015.8.13`
salt	`>= 2016.3.0, < 2016.11.5`	`2016.11.5`
salt	`>= 2016.11.7, < 2016.11.10`	`2016.11.10`
salt	`>= 2017.5.0, < 2017.7.8`	`2017.7.8`
salt	`>= 2018.2.0, <= 2018.3.5`	No fix yet
salt	`>= 2019.2.0, < 2019.2.8`	`2019.2.8`
salt	`>= 3000, < 3000.7`	`3000.7`
salt	`>= 3001, < 3001.5`	`3001.5`
salt	`>= 3002, < 3002.3`	`3002.3`
salt	`< 2015.8.10` `>= 2015.8.11, < 2015.8.13` `>= 2016.3.0, < 2016.3.4` `>= 2016.3.5, < 2016.3.6` `>= 2016.3.7, < 2016.3.8` `>= 2016.11.0, < 2016.11.3` `>= 2016.11.4, < 2016.11.5` `>= 2016.11.7, < 2016.11.10` `>= 2017.7.0, < 2017.7.8` `>= 2018.3.0rc1, < 2019.2.0rc1` `>= 2019.2.0, < 2019.2.5` `>= 2019.2.6, < 2019.2.8` `>= 3000, < 3000.6` `>= 3001, < 3001.4` `>= 3002, < 3002.5`	`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`

How to fix

Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.

salt PyPI → `2015.8.13`

pip

pip install --upgrade "salt>=2015.8.13"

poetry

poetry add "salt>=2015.8.13"

uv

uv add "salt>=2015.8.13"

Severity breakdown

CVSS 3.1 9.8

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Weakness

CWE-74: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component ('Injection')

The product constructs all or part of a command, data structure, or record using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify how it is parsed or interpreted when it is sent to a downstream component.

How to prevent it

Requirements: Programming languages and supporting technologies might be chosen which are not subject to these issues.
Implementation: Utilize an appropriate mix of allowlist and denylist parsing to filter control-plane syntax from all input.

References

Advisories

Packages

github.com/saltstack/salt

Timeline

Feb 27, 2021 Published
Jun 10, 2026 Last updated by the source
Oct 31, 2026 Latest EPSS score

Advisory	Severity	Why it's related
CVE-2020-16846 SaltStack Salt Command Injection in netapi ssh client	Critical Known exploited	Also affects salt
CVE-2020-11652 SaltStack Salt is vulnerable Arbitrary Directory Access	High Known exploited	Also affects salt
CVE-2020-11651 SaltStack Salt Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution	Critical Known exploited	Also affects salt
GHSA-vcf3-26xf-fw4m Salt Authentication Protocol Version Downgrade Allows Minion Impersonation	Medium	Also affects salt
GHSA-77w2-v593-vxvv Salt junos Module Vulnerable to Code Injection via Specially Crafted YAML Payload	High	Also affects salt
GHSA-8pcp-r83j-fc92 Salt vulnerable to directory traversal attack in file receiving method	High	Also affects salt
GHSA-989c-m532-p2hv Salt's worker process vulnerable to denial of service through file read operation	Medium	Also affects salt
GHSA-7f3f-x5f5-79gw Salt's file contents overwrite the VirtKey class	Medium	Also affects salt

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