GHSA-w589-r335-4f55 CVE-2020-28972 PYSEC-2021-74

SaltStack Salt Improper Certificate Validation

Medium PyPI

Severity: 0.0 / 10; Medium · CVSS 4.0
Exploit chance (EPSS): 3.08%; Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 87.67% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited: No; Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness: CWE-295 Improper Certificate Validation
Fix: 2015.8.13; Upgrade salt to this version or later

Description

In SaltStack Salt before 3002.5, authentication to VMware vcenter, vsphere, and esxi servers (in the vmware.py files) does not always validate the SSL/TLS certificate.

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 4.0 0.0

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Attack requirements: Present
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Confidentiality (vulnerable system): High
Integrity (vulnerable system): None
Availability (vulnerable system): None
Confidentiality (subsequent systems): None
Integrity (subsequent systems): None
Availability (subsequent systems): None

CVSS 3.1 5.9

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

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

Weakness

CWE-295: Improper Certificate Validation

The product does not validate, or incorrectly validates, a certificate.

How to prevent it

Architecture and Design, Implementation: Certificates should be carefully managed and checked to assure that data are encrypted with the intended owner's public key.
Implementation: If certificate pinning is being used, ensure that all relevant properties of the certificate are fully validated before the certificate is pinned, including the hostname.

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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