CVE-2023-3997
📋 TL;DR
CVE-2023-3997 is a log file poisoning vulnerability in Splunk SOAR where attackers can inject malicious ANSI escape sequences through web requests. When administrators view these poisoned logs in their terminals, it can lead to terminal manipulation and potential code execution. This affects Splunk SOAR versions below 6.1.0.
💻 Affected Systems
- Splunk SOAR (formerly Phantom)
📦 What is this software?
Soar by Splunk
Soar by Splunk
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Remote code execution on administrator's workstation through terminal emulator vulnerabilities when viewing logs, potentially leading to full system compromise.
Likely Case
Terminal manipulation causing unexpected behavior, data corruption, or denial of service on administrator workstations.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper access controls, log sanitization, and terminal security configurations.
🎯 Exploit Status
Requires ability to send web requests to Splunk SOAR and for administrator to view logs in vulnerable terminal.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 6.1.0 and later
Vendor Advisory: https://advisory.splunk.com/advisories/SVD-2023-0702
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Backup current configuration. 2. Upgrade Splunk SOAR to version 6.1.0 or later. 3. Restart Splunk SOAR services. 4. Verify upgrade completed successfully.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Filter ANSI escape sequences in logs
linuxConfigure log processing to strip or escape ANSI control characters before storage.
sed -r 's/\x1b\[[0-9;]*[a-zA-Z]//g' logfile.log > clean.log
Use secure terminal viewers
allConfigure administrators to use terminal emulators that sanitize or disable ANSI escape sequence execution.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict web access to Splunk SOAR to trusted sources only
- Implement log sanitization pipeline that removes ANSI escape sequences before viewing
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Splunk SOAR version via admin interface or command: phantom --versionCheck Version:
phantom --versionVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm version is 6.1.0 or higher and test log viewing with known ANSI sequences📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual ANSI escape sequences in web request logs
- Malformed log entries with control characters
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing unusual ANSI character sequences to Splunk SOAR endpoints
SIEM Query:
source="splunk_soar_logs" AND ("\x1b[" OR "\033[" OR "\e[")