GHSA-r55w-xph5-xvx2 CVE-2021-25284 PYSEC-2021-53

SaltStack Salt Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information via cmdmod

Medium PyPI

Severity: 4.4 / 10; Medium · CVSS 3.1
Exploit chance (EPSS): 0.54%; Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 45.63% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited: No; Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness: CWE-312 Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information; CWE-522 Insufficiently Protected Credentials
Fix: 2015.8.13; Upgrade salt to this version or later

Description

An issue was discovered in through SaltStack Salt before 3002.5. salt.modules.cmdmod can log credentials to the info or error log level.

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 4.4

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

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

Weakness

CWE-312: Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information

The product stores sensitive information in cleartext within a resource that might be accessible to another control sphere.

How to prevent it

Implementation, System Configuration, Operation: When storing data in the cloud (e.g., S3 buckets, Azure blobs, Google Cloud Storage, etc.), use the provider's controls to encrypt the data at rest. [REF-1297] [REF-1299] [REF-1301]
Implementation, System Configuration, Operation: In some systems/environments such as cloud, the use of "double encryption" (at both the software and hardware layer) might be required, and the developer might be solely responsible for both layers, instead of shared responsibility with the administrator of the broader system/environment.

CWE-522: Insufficiently Protected Credentials

The product transmits or stores authentication credentials, but it uses an insecure method that is susceptible to unauthorized interception and/or retrieval.

How to prevent it

Architecture and Design: Use an appropriate security mechanism to protect the credentials.
Architecture and Design: Make appropriate use of cryptography to protect the credentials.
Implementation: Use industry standards to protect the credentials (e.g. LDAP, keystore, etc.).

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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