CVE-2023-40598 — In Splunk Enterprise versions below 8

In Splunk Enterprise versions below 8.2.12, 9.0.6, and 9.1.1, an attacker can create an external lookup that calls a legacy internal function. The attacker can use this internal function to insert code into the Splunk platform installation directory. From there, a user can execut

01What is this vulnerability?

In Splunk Enterprise versions below 8.2.12, 9.0.6, and 9.1.1, an attacker can create an external lookup that calls a legacy internal function. The attacker can use this internal function to insert code into the Splunk platform installation directory. From there, a user can execute arbitrary code on the Splunk platform Instance.

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
Splunk	Splunk Enterprise	8.2, 9.0, 9.1
Splunk	Splunk Cloud	-

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Open the Sigma generator with a pre-filled prompt for this CVE to draft a starting detection in your stack of choice:

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07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2023-08-30T16:19:28.135Z
• Last modified: 2025-02-28T11:03:41.623Z

09References

• advisory.splunk.com — https://advisory.splunk.com/advisories/SVD-2023-0807
• research.splunk.com — https://research.splunk.com/application/ee69374a-d27e-4136-adac-956a96ff60fd/