CVE-2025-20232
📋 TL;DR
This CVE describes a privilege escalation vulnerability in Splunk Enterprise and Cloud Platform where low-privileged users can bypass SPL safeguards for risky commands. Attackers can trick authenticated users into executing malicious saved searches that run with higher privileges than intended. This affects Splunk Enterprise versions below 9.3.3, 9.2.5, and 9.1.8, and specific Splunk Cloud Platform versions.
💻 Affected Systems
- Splunk Enterprise
- Splunk Cloud Platform
📦 What is this software?
Splunk by Splunk
Splunk by Splunk
Splunk by Splunk
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
An attacker could execute arbitrary commands with elevated privileges, potentially gaining full control of the Splunk instance and accessing sensitive data or deploying malware.
Likely Case
Attackers could exfiltrate sensitive data, modify configurations, or disrupt Splunk operations through unauthorized command execution.
If Mitigated
With proper user awareness training and access controls, exploitation would require successful phishing of a privileged user, limiting impact.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires social engineering (phishing) to trick a user into initiating a request, making it more complex than direct attacks.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Splunk Enterprise: 9.3.3, 9.2.5, 9.1.8. Splunk Cloud Platform: 9.3.2408.103, 9.2.2406.108, 9.2.2403.113, 9.1.2312.208, 9.1.2308.212.
Vendor Advisory: https://advisory.splunk.com/advisories/SVD-2025-0304
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Backup Splunk configuration and data. 2. Download the appropriate patch from Splunk's website. 3. Stop Splunk services. 4. Apply the patch following Splunk's upgrade documentation. 5. Restart Splunk services. 6. Verify the fix by checking the version.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict Saved Search Permissions
allLimit saved search creation and execution to trusted users only.
splunk edit user <username> -roles <role> -capabilities <capabilities>
Implement Web Application Firewall Rules
allBlock or monitor requests to the /app/search/search endpoint with suspicious parameters.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict access controls to limit who can create and run saved searches.
- Conduct user awareness training to prevent phishing attacks targeting Splunk users.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Splunk version using the web interface (Settings > Server Info) or CLI command.Check Version:
splunk versionVerify Fix Applied:
Verify the version matches or exceeds the patched versions listed in the advisory.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual saved search executions, especially with risky commands like | run, | script, or | inputcsv.
- Failed authentication attempts followed by successful saved search executions from low-privileged accounts.
Network Indicators:
- HTTP POST requests to /app/search/search with suspicious 's' parameter values.
SIEM Query:
index=_audit action=search_search savedsearch_name=* | search user=* | stats count by user, savedsearch_name