Minion impersonation via legacy authentication payloads
Published Jan 30, 2026 · Updated Jan 30, 2026
Authentication downgrade in Salt 3006.12 through 3006.16 and 3007.4 through 3007.8 allows remote authenticated users to impersonate minions. SaltMessageServer.handle_message treats a missing version field as protocol 0 and decodes the payload without enforcing a minimum, allowing legacy formats to omit signing, nonce, TTL, token, and minion-ID checks. Control of an accepted minion is required; successful downgrade bypasses newer authentication protections and grants another minion's identity.
Summary
What happened
Authentication downgrade in Salt 3006.12 through 3006.16 and 3007.4 through 3007.8 allows remote authenticated users to impersonate minions. SaltMessageServer.handle_message treats a missing version field as protocol 0 and decodes the payload without enforcing a minimum, allowing legacy formats to omit signing, nonce, TTL, token, and minion-ID checks. Control of an accepted minion is required; successful downgrade bypasses newer authentication protections and grants another minion's identity.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-62349
- Published
- Jan 30, 2026
- Updated
- Jan 30, 2026
- Vendor
- Salt Project
- Product
- Salt
- Classifications
- CWE-287
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 30, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jan 30, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=3006.12 <3006.17
- Affected versionversion=3007.4 <3007.9
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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