CVE-2021-25281

CRITICALNVD 9.89.8—Weaponized

9.8

An issue was discovered in through SaltStack Salt before 3002.5. salt-api does not honor eauth credentials for the wheel_async client. Thus, an attacker can remotely run any wheel modules on the master.

CVSS v3: 9.8
EG Score: 9.8(high)
EPSS: 99.9%
KEV: Not listed

Published

February 27, 2021

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

References (22)

cve@mitrehttp://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162058/SaltStack-Salt-API-Unauthenticated-Remote-Command-Execution.html
cve@mitrehttps://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases
cve@mitrehttps://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/11/msg00009.html
cve@mitrehttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/7GRVZ5WAEI3XFN2BDTL6DDXFS5HYSDVB/
cve@mitrehttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/FUGLOJ6NXLCIFRD2JTXBYQEMAEF2B6XH/
cve@mitrehttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/YOGNT2XWPOYV7YT75DN7PS4GIYWFKOK5/
cve@mitrehttps://saltproject.io/security_announcements/active-saltstack-cve-release-2021-feb-25/
cve@mitrehttps://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202103-01
cve@mitrehttps://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202310-22
cve@mitrehttps://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-5011
cve@mitrehttps://www.saltstack.com/blog/active-saltstack-cve-announced-2021-jan-21/
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162058/SaltStack-Salt-API-Unauthenticated-Remote-Command-Execution.html
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/11/msg00009.html
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/7GRVZ5WAEI3XFN2BDTL6DDXFS5HYSDVB/

Patch Availability(1)

Vendor / Ecosystem	Fixed in / Patch	Released	Source
ubuntu	salt-syndic (2015.8.8+ds-1ubuntu0.1+esm2) @ xenial	2026-05-26	ubuntu

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Affected Packages

(1 across 1 ecosystem)

PyPI(1)

Package	Vulnerable range	Fixed in	Dependents
salt	0.8.7 ... 3002.4 (159 versions)	3002.5	—

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

CWE-287Improper Authentication

All Vendor Advisories

(1)

Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.

UbuntuUSN-6948-1MEDIUM
Salt vulnerabilities

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 3× in last 7d / 8× in last 30d)

Every time one of our enrichment pipelines (NVD, MITRE cvelistV5, EPSS, CISA KEV, GHSA, OSV, vendor advisories) ran against this CVE. Most recent first.

2026-05-31 22:29 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-31 22:29 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-29 13:42 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-26 20:18 UTCEG score recompute
2026-05-26 20:18 UTCVendor advisory
2026-05-26 13:42 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-26 07:17 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-26 07:17 UTCepss_batch

Publicly available exploits

(3 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 Metasploit module) (1 GitHub PoC). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

GitHub PoCImmersive-Labs-Sec/CVE-2021-25281
First seen Feb 26, 2021
Chaining CVE-2021-25281 and CVE-2021-25282 to exploit a SaltStack
Open source ↗
Metasploitexploit/linux/http/saltstack_salt_wheel_async_rce✓ verified
First seen Feb 25, 2021
SaltStack Salt API Unauthenticated RCE through wheel_async client
Open source ↗
Nucleihttp/cves/2021/CVE-2021-25281.yaml
First seen Jan 1, 2021
SaltStack Salt <3002.5 - Auth Bypass
Open source ↗

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2021-25281?

CVE-2021-25281 is a critical vulnerability published on February 27, 2021. An issue was discovered in through SaltStack Salt before 3002.5. salt-api does not honor eauth credentials for the wheel_async client. Thus, an attacker can remotely run any wheel modules on the master.

When was CVE-2021-25281 disclosed?

CVE-2021-25281 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on February 27, 2021, with the most recent update on November 21, 2024. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.

Is CVE-2021-25281 actively exploited?

CVE-2021-25281 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 99.9% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.

What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-25281?

CVE-2021-25281 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (NVD).

How do I remediate CVE-2021-25281?

Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2021-25281, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2021-25281

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CVE-2021-25281

Published

Last Modified

References (22)

Patch Availability(1)

Affected Packages

Weakness Classification(1)

All Vendor Advisories

Data Freshness Timeline

Publicly available exploits

Frequently asked(5)

Dependency Blast Radius

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2021-25281?

Same vendor

Same CWE

CVE-2021-25281

📅 Published

🔄 Last Modified

🔗 References (22)

Patch Availability(1)

Affected Packages

Weakness Classification(1)

All Vendor Advisories

Data Freshness Timeline

Publicly available exploits

❓ Frequently asked(5)

Dependency Blast Radius

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2021-25281?

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References (22)

Frequently asked(5)

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