CVE-2021-25281

highpriority · attend · 75EPSS 0.731 · 99 %ileexploit · weaponizedDEEURUUS

grimoire priorityP1 · Urgent

Exploitable?

Public exploit

2 exploits · weaponized

Likely / severe?

73.1% (99th) EPSS

CVSS 7.5 · high

Is it mine?

74 products

Check your exposure

Who says so?

5 sources

cnnvd · enisa_euvd · fstec_bdu · osv

EPSS · scored 2026-10-27

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

Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.

9.8

010

base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode⚠ sources disagree · high–critical · 7.5–9.8

v2.07.5highAV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:Pprimary · NVD / NIST USexploitability 10 · impact 6.4

v3.19.8criticalCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hprimary · NVD / NIST USexploitability 3.9 · impact 5.9

v3.19.8criticalAV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hsecondary · FSTEC (BDU) RU

v3.19.8criticalCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hsecondary · OSV

v3.19.8criticalCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:Hsecondary · CVSS-BT (t0sche)

ssvc

A stakeholder decision — act, attend, or track — from exploitation and impact.

Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical Impact: totalcoordinatorcisa_ssvcUS

weaknesses

The CWE weakness classes this flaw belongs to.

CWE-287USprimaryCWE-287USCWE-287US

exploits (2)

Public proof-of-concept and weaponised exploit code.

exploit/linux/http/saltstack_salt_wheel_async_rceSaltStack Salt API Unauthenticated RCE through wheel_async clientweaponized · metasploit
Immersive-Labs-Sec/CVE-2021-25281Chaining CVE-2021-25281 and CVE-2021-25282 to exploit a SaltStackPoC · poc_in_github

affected products (74)

Products and version ranges known to be affected.

Debian Linuxall versionscert_bundDEcpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:-
Gentoo Linuxall versionscert_bundDEcpe:/o:gentoo:linux:-
Open Source Arch Linuxall versionscert_bundDEcpe:/o:archlinux:archlinux:-
SUSE Linuxall versionscert_bundDEcpe:/o:suse:suse_linux:-
SaltStack Saltall versionscert_bundDEcpe:/a:saltstack:salt:-
Ubuntu Linuxall versionscert_bundDEcpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:-
n/a n/a≤ n/aenisa_euvdEU
Fedora Project Fedora≤ 33fstec_bduRU
Fedora Project Fedora≤ 32fstec_bduRU
Fedora Project Fedora≤ 34fstec_bduRU
SaltStack, Inc Salt≤ 2015.8.10fstec_bduRU
SaltStack, Inc Salt2015.8.11 → 2015.8.13fstec_bduRU
SaltStack, Inc Salt2016.11.4 → 2016.11.5fstec_bduRU
SaltStack, Inc Salt2016.11.7 → 2016.11.10fstec_bduRU
SaltStack, Inc Salt2016.3.0 → 2016.3.4fstec_bduRU
SaltStack, Inc Salt2016.3.5 → 2016.3.6fstec_bduRU
SaltStack, Inc Salt2016.3.7 → 2016.3.8fstec_bduRU
SaltStack, Inc Salt2016.3.9 → 2016.11.3fstec_bduRU
SaltStack, Inc Salt2017.5.0 → 2017.7.8fstec_bduRU
SaltStack, Inc Salt2018.2.0 → 2018.3.5fstec_bduRU

showing 20 of 74

advisories (3)

Vendor and ecosystem advisories describing this.

WID-SEC-W-2023-2845SaltStack Salt: Mehrere SchwachstellenDeutsch2021-02-28csaf · cert_bundDE
Ein entfernter, anonymer Angreifer kann mehrere Schwachstellen in SaltStack Salt ausnutzen, um beliebigen Programmcode auszuführen.
GHSA-xxw3-765m-f37pSaltStack Salt Improper Authentication vulnerability2022-05-24ghsa · osvUS
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.
PYSEC-2021-502021-02-27vendor · osvUS
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.

also known as (7)

Other names and identifiers for this entity.

sources

Which sources assert this record, and when.

cnnvd enisa_euvd fstec_bdu osv cert_bund NVD CVE.org MITRE

published 2021-02-27modified 2026-06-17

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+7705 more

references (45)

External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.

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