VulnerabilityPublished 7 Jul 2025

CVE-2025-20321: Splunk Enterprise · The web application does not, or can not, sufficiently verify whether a well-formed, valid, consistent request was intentionally provided by the user who submitted the request.

Affects Splunk EnterpriseSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.5 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.5Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 9% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 7 Jul 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Splunk Splunk Enterprise	Affected 9.1 – 9.4 4 affected builds	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Upgrade Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Cloud Platform to the fixed versions: 9.4.3, 9.3.5, 9.2.7, or 9.1.10 or later as applicable. Applying vendor patches is the most effective mitigation.
Implement strict anti-CSRF protections at the web application layer, including validating CSRF tokens on all state-changing requests.
Harden administrator accounts by enforcing multi-factor authentication (MFA) to reduce the risk of successful phishing.
Conduct targeted phishing awareness training for administrators and privileged users to reduce the likelihood of user interaction with malicious requests.
Monitor Splunk SHC membership changes and audit logs for unusual or unauthorized modifications.
Restrict browser access to Splunk management interfaces to trusted networks or via VPN to reduce exposure.
Employ web application firewalls (WAFs) with rules to detect and block suspicious SPL search requests or CSRF attempts.
Regularly review and minimize the number of users with administrator privileges to reduce the attack surface.

Description

In Splunk Enterprise versions below 9.4.3, 9.3.5, 9.2.7 and 9.1.10, and Splunk Cloud Platform versions below 9.3.2411.104, 9.3.2408.114, and 9.2.2406.119, an unauthenticated attacker can send a specially-crafted SPL search that could change the membership state in a Splunk Search Head Cluster (SHC) through a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF), potentially leading to the removal of the captain or a member of the SHC.<br><br>The vulnerability requires the attacker to phish the administrator-level victim by tricking them into initiating a request within their browser. The attacker should not be able to exploit the vulnerability at will.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability can be substantial, especially for those relying heavily on Splunk Enterprise for critical security monitoring, compliance reporting, and operational analytics. Disruption of the Search Head Cluster membership could lead to degraded performance, loss of search functionality, or downtime, impairing incident detection and response capabilities. This could delay threat detection and remediation, increasing the risk of undetected breaches or compliance violations under regulations such as GDPR. Since the attack requires phishing an administrator, organizations with less mature security awareness programs or insufficient phishing defenses are at higher risk. Additionally, organizations with large, distributed Splunk deployments may experience more pronounced operational impacts if cluster coordination is compromised. The vulnerability does not expose sensitive data directly but threatens availability and operational continuity, which are critical for security operations centers (SOCs) and IT teams.

References

advisory.splunk.com/advisories/SVD-2025-0704 (opens in a new tab)

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 7 Jul 2025, 18:10 UTC

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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