http://shouldirollmyowncrypto.com/ ? :)

Note, had no part in registering this, but it's another example of why you don't want to hand-roll things.

Salt's REAT protocol uses the CurveCP crypto library, so yes, this is being addressed.

So, is being addressed not has been addressed? Is REAT the future of Salt? The most relevant I could find wasn't very clear:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/salt-users/nh8MqRiHV...

As far as I can tell RAET is still optional/Beta?:

http://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/topics/releases/2014.7.0...

I tried finding out if CVEs had been assigned to the AES/RSA issues, but as far as I can tell there weren't any CVEs assigned:

http://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-12943...

Mail suggesting CVE for RSA exponent: http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2013/07/01/1

But the CVE is only reserved, not assigned?: http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2013-2228

With the history of some very serious issues with the salt crypto, I'm a little concerned that there doesn't seem to exist any good documentation on the past and current state of the protocol security from the salt project?

As I said up-thread -- perhaps I'm not being fair, perhaps I'm just not aware of where to look -- but I've yet to see anything that puts me entirely at ease: have new members been added to the team? Has there been a successful audit? Did the attacks turn out to not be practical?

While I might not have the same confidence in paramiko as I do in openssh -- at least it works with a well-tested protocol -- and more importantly -- with a rather well-known protocol -- it's easier to evaluate. If someone can get root access via ssh that is bad. If the risk is limited to someone stealing a private key, then that is at least something to plan around (and make decisions around).

Yeah, good questions for sure. I'd suggest asking on the SaltStack IRC channel which is very active and helpful.

http://www.saltstack.com/community/