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CVE-2016-3176

20
FAUCET Score

CVE-2016-3176 describes an authentication bypass vulnerability in Salt versions prior to 2015.5.10 and 2015.8.8, specifically when PAM external authentication is enabled. An attacker can bypass the configured authentication service by providing an alternate service in a command sent to LocalClient. This vulnerability has a CVSS v3 score of 5.6 (Medium), indicating a network-based attack with high attack complexity and low impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. There is no evidence of active exploitation, publicly available exploit code, or significant community discussion surrounding this CVE.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
<= 2015.5.9CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:saltstack:salt:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2015.8.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:saltstack:salt:2015.8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2015.8.1CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:saltstack:salt:2015.8.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2015.8.2CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:saltstack:salt:2015.8.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2015.8.3CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:saltstack:salt:2015.8.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.0

5.6MEDIUM

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
HIGH
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
LOW
Integrity Impact
LOW
Availability Impact
LOW
Exploitability Score
2.2
Impact Score
3.4
CvssVersion
3.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
0.87%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
55.1%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-24
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0087 is in the 13th percentile among its peer group of 19,953 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.0 Bluesky, 0.0 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (5)

pippatch availablevia ghsa
Product: saltFixed in: 2015.5.10
pippatch availablevia ghsa
Product: saltFixed in: 2015.8.8
ubuntupatch availablevia ubuntu_usn
Product: salt (trusty)Fixed in: 0.17.5+ds-1ubuntu0.1~esm5
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Ceph Storage 1.2Fixed in: salt
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Ceph Storage 1.3Fixed in: salt

Vendor Advisories (3)

ubuntuUSN-8153-1

Salt vulnerabilities

Apr 7, 2026
pipGHSA-v2rp-9cpj-pfw2medium

Salt Insecure configuration of PAM external authentication service

May 17, 2022
redhatCVE-2016-3176Moderate

salt: insecure configuration of PAM external authentication service

Mar 23, 2016

References

docs.saltstack.com / en/latest/topics/releases/2015.5.10.html
Release NotesVendor Advisory
docs.saltstack.com / en/latest/topics/releases/2015.8.8.html
Release NotesVendor Advisory