CVE-2015-6941: Salt Salt Password Information Leaked Vulnerability

CRITICAL
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-cxm4-7qcw-267r
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CVSS 9.8
CWE-200
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2015-6941 is a CRITICAL (CVSS 9.8) salt password information leaked vulnerability (CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor) affecting Salt libraries in the PyPI ecosystem. The issue involves salt password information leaked in debug logs. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 2015.5.6, 2015.8.1.

CVE-2015-6941 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2015-6941
GHSA Identifier GHSA-cxm4-7qcw-267r
Severity CRITICAL
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 9.8
CWE Classification CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
Affected Product Salt
Package Ecosystem PyPI
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 9.8

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality High (C:H)
Integrity High (I:H)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2015-6941

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Salt dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

salt fixed: 2015.5.6 
pip install salt>=2015.5.6
salt fixed: 2015.8.1 
pip install salt>=2015.8.1
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

pip show salt

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Python environment is affected by CVE-2015-6941, inspect your installed packages using pip:

pip show salt

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Salt in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 2015.5.6), your application is affected.

Note: The pip show salt command checks currently installed packages in your active Python environment.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor, where the product exposes sensitive information to an actor that is not explicitly authorized to have access to that information. In Salt, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

win_useradd, salt-cloud and the Linode driver in salt 2015.5.x before 2015.5.6, and 2015.8.x before 2015.8.1 leak password information in debug logs.

CVE-2015-6941 Affected Salt Versions

2 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
2015.5.62015.8.1
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
salt
pypi/salt
PyPI
≥ 2015.5
< 2015.5.6
2015.5.6
salt
pypi/salt
PyPI
≥ 2015.8
< 2015.8.1
2015.8.1

References

NVD — CVE-2015-6941 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-6941
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/saltstack/salt/commit/c0689e32154c41f59840ae10ffc5fbfa30618710
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/saltstack/salt/commit/fdd35374562658f4a20767a3703fab93d92f9ca9
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/twangboy/salt/commit/c0689e32154c41f59840ae10ffc5fbfa30618710
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi WEB
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1273066
Salt Release RELEASE
https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/topics/releases/2015.5.6.html
Salt Release RELEASE
https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/topics/releases/2015.8.1.html
Salt Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/salt/PYSEC-2017-71.yaml
Salt Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/saltstack/salt

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2015-6941?
CVE-2015-6941 is a security vulnerability in Salt involving salt password information leaked in debug logs under CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor.
Which Salt versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 2015.5.6, 2015.8.1 across affected packages: salt.
What version fixes CVE-2015-6941?
Upgrading to 2015.5.6, 2015.8.1 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is salt affected?
Yes, salt is affected in releases prior to 2015.5.6, 2015.8.1. Upgrade your dependency to 2015.5.6, 2015.8.1 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2015-6941?
CVE-2015-6941 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL) with vector string CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2015-6941?
CVE-2015-6941 is classified under CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor (The product exposes sensitive information to an actor that is not explicitly authorized to have access to that information.).
How can I check PyPI dependencies for CVE-2015-6941?
Run the dependency tree command: 'pip show salt'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-cxm4-7qcw-267r",
  "modified" : "2024-10-21T21:47:42Z",
  "published" : "2022-05-17T01:59:05Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2015-6941" ],
  "summary" : "salt password information leaked in debug logs",
  "details" : "win_useradd, salt-cloud and the Linode driver in salt 2015.5.x before 2015.5.6, and 2015.8.x before 2015.8.1 leak password information in debug logs.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
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      "name" : "salt"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "2015.5"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "2015.5.6"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "PyPI",
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    },
    "ranges" : [ {
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      }, {
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      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-6941"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/saltstack/salt/commit/c0689e32154c41f59840ae10ffc5fbfa30618710"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/saltstack/salt/commit/fdd35374562658f4a20767a3703fab93d92f9ca9"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/twangboy/salt/commit/c0689e32154c41f59840ae10ffc5fbfa30618710"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1273066"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/topics/releases/2015.5.6.html"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/topics/releases/2015.8.1.html"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
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  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/saltstack/salt"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-200" ],
    "severity" : "CRITICAL",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2024-05-01T11:21:22Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2017-08-09T16:29:00Z"
  }
}