Cyber Posture

CVE-2025-20229

High

Published: 26 March 2025

Published
26 March 2025
Modified
21 July 2025
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score 8.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0075 73.2th percentile
Risk Priority 16 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Description

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.

Security Summary

CVE-2025-20229 is a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability affecting Splunk Enterprise versions below 9.3.3, 9.2.5, and 9.1.8, as well as Splunk Cloud Platform versions below 9.3.2408.104, 9.2.2406.108, 9.2.2403.114, and 9.1.2312.208. The flaw arises from missing authorization checks, enabling a low-privileged user lacking "admin" or "power" Splunk roles to upload malicious files to the $SPLUNK_HOME/var/run/splunk/apptemp directory.

A low-privileged user with network access can exploit this vulnerability remotely by uploading a crafted file to the specified directory, though it requires user interaction. Successful exploitation allows arbitrary code execution on the Splunk server, resulting in high impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability, as reflected in its CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.0 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). The issue is linked to CWE-284 (Improper Access Control).

Splunk's advisory SVD-2025-0301 details the vulnerability and recommends mitigation by upgrading to the patched versions: Splunk Enterprise 9.3.3, 9.2.5, 9.1.8 or later, and the corresponding Splunk Cloud Platform releases.

Details

CWE(s)
CWE-284

Affected Products

splunk
splunk
9.4.0 · 9.1.0 — 9.1.8 · 9.2.0 — 9.2.5 · 9.3.0 — 9.3.3
splunk
splunk cloud platform
9.1.2312 — 9.1.2312.208 · 9.2.2403 — 9.2.2403.114 · 9.2.2406.100 — 9.2.2406.108

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
Why these techniques?

RCE vulnerability in public-facing Splunk app due to missing authorization checks, allowing low-priv users to upload malicious files for arbitrary code execution, directly enabling T1190 (Exploit Public-Facing Application) and T1068 (Exploitation for Privilege Escalation).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

References