CVE-2020-28243

HIGHNVD 7.87.8
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

“—” beside the score: it is equal to NVD's CVSS score.

Score 7.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2022-05-24. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: EPSS, GitHub Security Advisory, NVD CVSS v3
Trending — 3 sources updated this weekElevated

Also known asEUVD-2021-0235 (ENISA EUVD) · GHSA-phhw-3wc9-8q75 (GitHub Security Advisories)Source: ENISA EUVD

7.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixRemediate within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high (the SSVC decision on this page).
  • Public exploit or proof-of-concept code is available
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 4.3%CVSS: 7.8Exploit: Public PoCExposed services: Not assessed

A fix is available — apply it.

An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt before 3002.5. The minion's restartcheck is vulnerable to command injection via a crafted process name. This allows for a local privilege escalation by any user able to create a files on the minion in a non-blacklisted directory.

CVSS v3
7.8
EG Score
7.8HIGHmedium confidence
EG Risk
51
EG Risk 51/100

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score. It fuses impact severity (EG Severity, the CVSS base score, never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score) with real-world exploitation and automatability, under weights EchelonGraph set by hand, so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner.

How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)
Severity78% × 45%
Impact severity (EG Severity): CVSS 7.8 of 10. Never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score.
Exploitation40% × 40%
EchelonGraph's fixed weight for EG-KEV Tier 3 (Elevated): a constant, not a probability.
Automatability0% × 15%
CISA's BOD 26-04 default: no one has published Automatable for this CVE, and CISA treats it as “no” for a CVE not in KEV.
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low, Track* at medium and Attend at high mission impact.
Exploitation public PoC (exploit code on record) · Automatable no (CISA's BOD 26-04 default) · Technical impact total (CISA's BOD 26-04 default). EchelonGraph holds no SSVC assessment of this CVE from CISA: none of these inputs is from Vulnrichment. EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.
Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.
EPSS PROB
4.3%
EPSS %ILE
91st
KEV
Not listed

What the EG score is made of (scorer v4.0: the three questions the 0–10 score mixes, published apart · methodology)

The EG score (7.8): severity, escalated by confirmed exploitation. This CVE's 7.8 is its impact severity (EG Severity), not escalated.

EG Severity
7.8 HIGHCVSS-B, impact only: no KEV listing, EPSS or EG-KEV tier raises it.GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
EG Likelihood
4.3% within 30 daysSource: FIRST EPSS (model v2026.06.15, score date 2026-10-31). FIRST's exploitation probability, not an EchelonGraph model.
Confirmed exploitation
None on record (CISA KEV, EG-KEV Tier 1)Reported apart from the likelihood: an observed fact, not a probability.
EG Priority
SSVC Track* at medium mission impactTrack at low, Track* at medium and Attend at high mission impact.CISA BOD 26-04: 14 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.Each input and its source, and whom BOD 26-04 binds: the SSVC and BOD 26-04 blocks below.

SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low, Track* at medium and Attend at high mission impact.

A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.

Exploitation public PoC (exploit code on record) · Automatable no (CISA's BOD 26-04 default) · Technical impact total (CISA's BOD 26-04 default). EchelonGraph holds no SSVC assessment of this CVE from CISA: none of these inputs is from Vulnrichment. EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table

BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)14 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.

The score's inputs: In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable no (CISA's BOD 26-04 default) · Technical impact total (CISA's BOD 26-04 default). Where an input reads “CISA's BOD 26-04 default”, no one has published it for this CVE, and CISA's implementation guidance says: “If “Automatable” and “Technical Impact” information items about a CVE ID are not available and the CVE ID is not in the KEV Catalog, CISA will treat its values as “no” and “total,” respectively, until CISA or a third party provides metadata about the CVE ID. CISA will always provide the Vulnrichment data for a CVE ID listed in the KEV Catalog.” Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it

Published

February 27, 2021

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

Advisory Details (9)

Auto-updated Sep 24, 2026
Patch available.
Web page

Salt: Multiple Vulnerabilities (GLSA 202310-22) — Gentoo security

https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202310-22
Web page

Salt: Multiple vulnerabilities (GLSA 202103-01) — Gentoo security

https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202103-01
Web page

CVE-2020-28243 SaltStack Minion Local Privilege Escalation · Stealthcopter

https://sec.stealthcopter.com/cve-2020-28243/
Web page

[SECURITY] Fedora 32 Update: salt-3001.6-1.fc32 - package-announce - Fedora mailing-lists

https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/YOGNT2XWPOYV7YT75DN7PS4GIYWFKOK5/
Web page

[SECURITY] Fedora 34 Update: salt-3002.5-1.fc34 - package-announce - Fedora mailing-lists

https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/FUGLOJ6NXLCIFRD2JTXBYQEMAEF2B6XH/
Web page

[SECURITY] Fedora 33 Update: salt-3002.5-1.fc33 - package-announce - Fedora mailing-lists

https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/7GRVZ5WAEI3XFN2BDTL6DDXFS5HYSDVB/
Web pageMentions a patch (unverified)

[SECURITY] [DLA 2480-2] salt regression update

https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/01/msg00000.html
Web pageMentions a patch (unverified)

[SECURITY] [DLA 2815-1] salt security update

https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/11/msg00009.html
Web page

GitHub - stealthcopter/CVE-2020-28243: CVE-2020-28243 Local Privledge Escalation Exploit in SaltStack Minion · GitHub

https://github.com/stealthcopter/CVE-2020-28243

Patch Availability(10)

Vendor / EcosystemFix (by version range) / PatchReleasedSource
ubuntusalt-syndic (2017.7.4+dfsg1-1ubuntu18.04.2+esm1) @ bionic2026-10-21ubuntu
pipsalt @ 2015.8.13 (fixes < 2015.8.13)—ghsa
pipsalt @ 2016.11.5 (fixes >= 2016.3.0, < 2016.11.5)—ghsa
pipsalt @ 2016.11.10 (fixes >= 2016.11.7, < 2016.11.10)—ghsa
pipsalt @ 2017.7.8 (fixes >= 2017.5.0, < 2017.7.8)—ghsa
pipsalt—ghsa
pipsalt @ 2019.2.8 (fixes >= 2019.2.0, < 2019.2.8)—ghsa
pipsalt @ 3000.7 (fixes >= 3000, < 3000.7)—ghsa
pipsalt @ 3001.5 (fixes >= 3001, < 3001.5)—ghsa
pipsalt @ 3002.3 (fixes >= 3002, < 3002.3)—ghsa

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

(2 across 2 ecosystems)
Debian:9(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
salt2016.11.2+ds-1 ... 2016.11.2+ds-1+deb9u6 (7 versions)
  • every version up to 2016.11.2+ds-1+deb9u7: fixed in 2016.11.2+ds-1+deb9u7
—
PyPI(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
salt0.10.0 ... 3002.4 (159 versions)
  • every version up to 2015.8.13: fixed in 2015.8.13
  • 2016.3.0 up to 2016.11.5: fixed in 2016.11.5
  • 2016.11.7 up to 2016.11.10: fixed in 2016.11.10
  • 2017.5.0 up to 2017.7.8: fixed in 2017.7.8
  • 2018.2.0 through 2018.3.5: no fix on record
  • 2019.2.0 up to 2019.2.8: fixed in 2019.2.8
  • 3000 up to 3000.7: fixed in 3000.7
  • 3001 up to 3001.5: fixed in 3001.5
  • 3002 up to 3002.3: fixed in 3002.3
  • every version up to 2015.8.10: fixed in 2015.8.10
  • 2015.8.11 up to 2015.8.13: fixed in 2015.8.13
  • 2016.3.0 up to 2016.3.4: fixed in 2016.3.4
  • 2016.3.5 up to 2016.3.6: fixed in 2016.3.6
  • 2016.3.7 up to 2016.3.8: fixed in 2016.3.8
  • 2016.11.0 up to 2016.11.3: fixed in 2016.11.3
  • 2016.11.4 up to 2016.11.5: fixed in 2016.11.5
  • 2017.7.0 up to 2017.7.8: fixed in 2017.7.8
  • 2018.3.0rc1 up to 2019.2.0rc1: fixed in 2019.2.0rc1
  • 2019.2.0 up to 2019.2.5: fixed in 2019.2.5
  • 2019.2.6 up to 2019.2.8: fixed in 2019.2.8
  • 3000 up to 3000.6: fixed in 3000.6
  • 3001 up to 3001.4: fixed in 3001.4
  • 3002 up to 3002.5: fixed in 3002.5
—

Weakness Classification(2)

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

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.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 9× in last 7d / 39× in last 30d)

Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 98 of 186 refreshes on record for this CVE.

A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. 2 repeat rows among the latest 100 are merged into the row they repeat. The 88 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.

  1. 2026-11-01 08:36 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-phhw-3wc9-8q75 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
  2. 2026-11-01 08:36 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-10-31 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  4. 2026-10-30 16:29 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  5. 2026-10-29 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  6. 2026-10-28 23:06 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-10-28 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  8. 2026-10-27 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  9. 2026-10-26 16:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  10. 2026-10-25 18:44 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-10-25 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  12. 2026-10-24 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  13. 2026-10-23 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  14. 2026-10-22 16:29 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  15. 2026-10-21 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  16. 2026-10-21 12:01 UTCEG score recompute
  17. 2026-10-21 12:01 UTCVendor advisory
  18. 2026-10-20 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  19. 2026-10-19 16:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  20. 2026-10-19 00:55 UTCOSV refresh
  21. 2026-10-18 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  22. 2026-10-18 09:25 UTCEG score recompute
  23. 2026-10-17 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  24. 2026-10-16 16:33 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
  25. 2026-10-15 16:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 91st percentile
Show 73 more
  1. 2026-10-14 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  2. 2026-10-13 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  3. 2026-10-12 19:38 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-10-12 16:29 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  5. 2026-10-12 00:01 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-10-11 13:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  7. 2026-10-10 19:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  8. 2026-10-09 20:04 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  9. 2026-10-08 16:38 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  10. 2026-10-07 23:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  11. 2026-10-06 15:13 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  12. 2026-10-05 17:39 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  13. 2026-10-04 23:18 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  14. 2026-10-03 14:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  15. 2026-09-30 15:17 UTCEG score recompute
  16. 2026-09-30 14:59 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  17. 2026-09-29 15:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  18. 2026-09-27 13:41 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  19. 2026-09-26 15:54 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  20. 2026-09-26 08:25 UTCOSV refresh
  21. 2026-09-24 14:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  22. 2026-09-22 14:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  23. 2026-09-21 20:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  24. 2026-09-19 15:37 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  25. 2026-09-18 19:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  26. 2026-09-17 19:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  27. 2026-09-16 14:04 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  28. 2026-09-15 03:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  29. 2026-09-12 14:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  30. 2026-09-11 09:32 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  31. 2026-09-08 21:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  32. 2026-09-07 15:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  33. 2026-09-06 21:43 UTCOSV refresh
  34. 2026-09-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  35. 2026-09-05 15:24 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  36. 2026-09-04 13:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  37. 2026-09-04 05:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  38. 2026-09-02 14:08 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  39. 2026-09-01 03:32 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  40. 2026-08-30 19:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  41. 2026-08-30 01:18 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  42. 2026-08-27 14:21 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  43. 2026-08-26 14:42 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  44. 2026-08-25 13:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  45. 2026-08-21 23:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  46. 2026-08-20 22:52 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  47. 2026-08-20 07:55 UTCOSV refresh
  48. 2026-08-19 17:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  49. 2026-08-18 13:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  50. 2026-08-17 13:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  51. 2026-08-16 14:52 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  52. 2026-08-16 02:11 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  53. 2026-08-15 01:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  54. 2026-08-13 21:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  55. 2026-08-12 13:47 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  56. 2026-08-08 16:33 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  57. 2026-08-07 16:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  58. 2026-08-06 13:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  59. 2026-08-05 03:10 UTCOSV refresh
  60. 2026-08-04 15:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  61. 2026-08-04 10:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  62. 2026-08-02 02:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  63. 2026-08-01 04:12 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  64. 2026-07-30 16:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  65. 2026-07-30 01:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  66. 2026-07-28 15:33 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  67. 2026-07-25 14:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  68. 2026-07-24 14:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  69. 2026-07-23 14:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  70. 2026-07-23 01:52 UTCEG score recompute
  71. 2026-07-22 22:38 UTCEG score recompute
  72. 2026-07-22 14:05 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile
  73. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 4.3% · 90th percentile

Publicly available exploits

(1 reference)

Public exploit code is referenced for this CVE (1 GitHub PoC). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly.

  • GitHub PoCstealthcopter/CVE-2020-28243
    Published Dec 22, 2020

    CVE-2020-28243 Local Privledge Escalation Exploit in SaltStack Minion

    Open source ↗

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2020-28243?
CVE-2020-28243 is a high-severity vulnerability; its CVE record was published on February 27, 2021. An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt before 3002.5. The minion's restartcheck is vulnerable to command injection via a crafted process name. This allows for a local privilege escalation by any user able to create a files on the minion in a non-blacklisted directory.
When was the CVE record for CVE-2020-28243 published?
The CVE record for CVE-2020-28243 was published on February 27, 2021. That is the record's publication date; the vulnerability itself may have been made public earlier. EchelonGraph's copy of the record carries a last-modified date of November 21, 2024; the record at its source may have been updated since.
Is CVE-2020-28243 actively exploited?
CVE-2020-28243 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 4.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (91st percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-28243?
CVE-2020-28243 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2020-28243?
A fix for CVE-2020-28243 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory.

Dependency Blast Radius

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