VulnerabilityPublished 30 Jan 2026Updated 26 Feb 2026

CVE-2025-62349: Salt · Improper Authentication

Affects SaltSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.2 Medium : upgrade to 3006.17 when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.2Medium

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

EPSS: 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 39% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 3006.17, 3007.9

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: High
Privileges Required: High
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: Low

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

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: High: A successful attack depends on conditions beyond the attacker's control. That is, a successful attack cannot be accomplished at will, but requires the attacker to invest in some measurable amount of effort in preparation or execution against the vulnerable component before a successful attack can be expected. For example, a successful attack may require an attacker to: gather knowledge about the environment in which the vulnerable target/component exists; prepare the target environment to improve exploit reliability; or inject themselves into the logical network path between the target and the resource requested by the victim in order to read and/or modify network communications (e.g., a man in the middle attack).
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: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
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 30 Jan 2026
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 26 Oct 2026.

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 or the CVSS exploit maturity 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 Salt to 3006.17; Salt to 3007.9.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Salt ProjectSalt	Affected >=3006.12 <3006.17	Fixed in 3006.17
Salt ProjectSalt	Affected >=3007.4 <3007.9	Fixed in 3007.9

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-62349, organizations should: 1) Monitor Salt Project advisories closely and apply patches promptly once available. 2) Restrict and harden access to Salt minions, ensuring that only trusted administrators have high privileges on these nodes. 3) Implement network segmentation and firewall rules to limit communication between minions and the Salt master to trusted sources only. 4) Enable and enforce strict protocol version checks on the Salt master to reject requests using deprecated or older authentication payload formats. 5) Conduct regular audits of Salt minion configurations and logs to detect anomalous authentication attempts or unusual command executions. 6) Employ multi-factor authentication and role-based access controls where possible to reduce the risk of compromised minions. 7) Consider deploying intrusion detection/prevention systems tailored to detect protocol downgrade attempts or unusual Salt traffic patterns. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on minimizing the attack surface on minions and enforcing strict protocol compliance.

Description

Salt contains an authentication protocol version downgrade weakness that can allow a malicious minion to bypass newer authentication/security features by using an older request payload format, enabling minion impersonation and circumventing protections introduced in response to prior issues.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2025-62349 is the potential for unauthorized access and control within Salt-managed environments. By impersonating a legitimate minion, an attacker can issue unauthorized commands, potentially leading to data exfiltration, unauthorized configuration changes, or lateral movement within an organization's infrastructure. This compromises both the confidentiality and integrity of systems managed by Salt. Although availability impact is low, the breach of trust in the authentication process can undermine the entire security posture of the orchestration environment. Organizations relying heavily on Salt for configuration management, especially in critical infrastructure, cloud environments, and large-scale enterprise deployments, face increased risk of targeted attacks exploiting this vulnerability. The requirement for high privileges on the attacking minion limits the attack surface but does not eliminate risk, especially in environments where minions may be less securely managed or exposed.

Summary

CVE-2025-62349 is a vulnerability classified under CWE-287 (Improper Authentication) affecting Salt Project's Salt software, specifically version 3006.12. The issue stems from an authentication protocol version downgrade weakness, where a malicious Salt minion can exploit the system by sending requests formatted according to an older protocol version. This downgrade attack bypasses newer authentication mechanisms and security features that were introduced to mitigate previous vulnerabilities. By doing so, the attacker can impersonate a legitimate minion, gaining unauthorized access to the Salt master’s resources and potentially issuing commands or retrieving sensitive data. The vulnerability requires the attacker to have high privileges on the minion itself, meaning the attacker must already control a minion or have elevated access on it. No user interaction is required for exploitation, and the attack can be performed remotely over the network. The CVSS v3.1 score of 6.2 reflects a medium severity, with high impact on confidentiality and integrity, and low impact on availability. There are no known exploits in the wild at the time of publication, and no patches have been linked yet. This vulnerability highlights the risks of protocol downgrade attacks in distributed orchestration systems and the importance of strict version enforcement in authentication protocols.

CWE-287Improper Authentication (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighOWASP Top 10 A07:2025: Authentication Failures (opens in a new tab)
When an actor claims to have a given identity, the product does not prove or insufficiently proves that the claim is correct.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use an authentication framework or library such as the OWASP ESAPI Authentication feature.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
OWASP Authentication (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V2.8.5 (opens in a new tab)
V2.8.4 (opens in a new tab)
V9.2.3 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Fake the Source of Data (opens in a new tab)
Utilizing REST's Trust in the System Resource to Obtain Sensitive Data (opens in a new tab)
Session Hijacking (opens in a new tab)
Token Impersonation (opens in a new tab)
Upload a Web Shell to a Web Server (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 27 Feb 2026, 07:33 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-287

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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