CVE-2025-22239VulnerabilityPublished 13 Jun 2025

CVE-2025-22239: VMware SALT · Vulnerability

Affects VMware SALTSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.1 High : upgrade to 3008.0.0 or 3007.0.0 soon.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

8.1High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 7% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 3008.0.0, 3007.0.0

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

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: High
User Interaction: None
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: Low

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: High: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable component that could affect component-wide settings and files.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Changed: An exploited vulnerability can affect resources beyond the security scope managed by the security authority of the vulnerable component. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are different and managed by different security authorities.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 13 Jun 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade VMware SALT to 3008.0.0 or 3007.0.0.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
VMware SALT	Affected >=3006.0.0 <3007.0.0 >=3007.0.0 <3008.0.0	Fixed in 3007.0.0 3008.0.0

AI-suggested

1. Restrict and monitor access to minions: Ensure that only trusted and verified minions have high privilege access to the Salt Master. Implement strict access controls and network segmentation to limit exposure. 2. Enhance authentication and authorization: Review and tighten authentication mechanisms for minions, possibly integrating multi-factor authentication or certificate-based validation to prevent unauthorized minion access. 3. Monitor event bus activity: Deploy advanced logging and anomaly detection on the Salt Master's event bus to detect unusual or unauthorized event injections promptly. 4. Apply principle of least privilege: Minions should operate with the minimum privileges necessary to perform their tasks, reducing the risk of privilege abuse. 5. Implement network-level controls: Use firewalls and intrusion detection/prevention systems to monitor and restrict communications between minions and the Salt Master. 6. Prepare incident response plans: Develop and test procedures for rapid containment and remediation in case of exploitation, including isolating affected minions and restoring trusted configurations. 7. 8. Conduct internal audits: Regularly audit Salt infrastructure configurations and access logs to identify potential misconfigurations or suspicious activities.

Description

Arbitrary event injection on Salt Master. The master's "_minion_event" method can be used by and authorized minion to send arbitrary events onto the master's event bus.

Impact

For European organizations, especially those relying on VMware SALT for infrastructure automation and configuration management, this vulnerability poses a substantial risk. Successful exploitation could lead to unauthorized command execution, manipulation of automation workflows, and potential lateral movement within the network. Confidentiality could be compromised by injecting events that exfiltrate sensitive data or alter logging mechanisms. Integrity is at high risk as attackers could modify system states or configurations, leading to persistent backdoors or sabotage. Availability impact is lower but still possible if event injection disrupts critical automation processes. Given the dependency of many enterprises and service providers on Salt for managing large-scale environments, exploitation could affect critical sectors such as finance, telecommunications, energy, and government services. The requirement for high privileges on a minion limits the attack surface but does not eliminate risk, as compromised or malicious insiders or automated processes could serve as vectors. The changed scope means that the impact could extend beyond the Salt Master to other connected systems, amplifying potential damage.

CWE-285Improper Authorization (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighOWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
The product does not perform or incorrectly performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
Architecture and Design
Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries.
Architecture and Design
Ensure that you perform access control checks related to your business logic. These checks may be different than the access control checks that you apply to more generic resources such as files, connections, processes, memory, and database records.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Authorization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.3.8 (opens in a new tab)
V13.4.2 (opens in a new tab)
V7.2.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Accessing Functionality Not Properly Constrained by ACLs (opens in a new tab)
Cross Zone Scripting (opens in a new tab)
Directory Indexing (opens in a new tab)
Subverting Environment Variable Values (opens in a new tab)
Using Malicious Files (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 13 Jun 2025, 07:34 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-285

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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