Critical Splunk Vulnerabilities: What Houston Businesses Need to Know

Splunk, the widely adopted platform for searching, monitoring, and analyzing machine-generated data, has recently released critical security patches addressing multiple vulnerabilities across its product line. On March 27, 2025, Splunk issued security advisories detailing these vulnerabilities, with two high-severity flaws presenting significant risks to affected organizations.

  High-Severity Vulnerabilities

CVE-2025-20229: Remote Code Execution via Unauthorized File Upload (CVSS 8.0)

The most severe vulnerability, CVE-2025-20229, allows low-privileged users to execute arbitrary code remotely by uploading malicious files to a specific directory on the server. According to Splunk’s advisory, this vulnerability stems from missing authorization checks in the file upload process to $SPLUNK_HOME/var/run/splunk/apptemp.

The vulnerability is particularly concerning because:

• It can be exploited by users without “admin” or “power” roles
• It has a high CVSS score of 8.0
• It enables remote code execution, one of the most dangerous attack vectors

Affected versions include:

• Splunk Enterprise: 9.1.0 to 9.1.7, 9.2.0 to 9.2.4, 9.3.0 to 9.3.2
• Splunk Cloud Platform: Various builds prior to 9.3.2408.104, 9.2.2406.108, and 9.1.2312.208

CVE-2025-20231: Sensitive Token Leakage in Splunk Secure Gateway (CVSS 7.1)

The second high-severity vulnerability, CVE-2025-20231, affects the Splunk Secure Gateway App and could lead to exposure of user session and authorization tokens. These tokens are logged in cleartext within splunk_secure_gateway.log when making calls to the /services/ssg/secrets endpoint.

This vulnerability:

• Requires an attacker to “phish” a victim by tricking them into initiating a request in their browser
• Has a CVSS score of 7.1
• Enables attackers to impersonate users and retrieve sensitive information through elevated search permissions

Affected products include:

• Splunk Enterprise: All builds below 9.4.1, 9.3.3, 9.2.5, and 9.1.8
• Splunk Secure Gateway: Versions below 3.8.38 and 3.7.23

  Additional Vulnerabilities

Splunk has also addressed several other security issues, including:

• Medium-severity flaws in Splunk Enterprise that could lead to:
  • Maintenance mode modifications
  • Safeguard bypasses
  • Information disclosure
  • Manipulation of other user data
• Multiple vulnerabilities in third-party packages used by various Splunk products

  Risk Assessment

The implications of these vulnerabilities are significant:

1. Remote Code Execution (RCE): Attackers exploiting CVE-2025-20229 could gain control of Splunk servers, potentially compromising the entire organization through lateral movement.
2. Privilege Escalation: Both vulnerabilities could enable attackers to gain access to information beyond their authorization level, potentially exposing sensitive business data.
3. Data Breaches: Exposed session tokens could lead to unauthorized access to critical data indexed by Splunk, which often includes security logs and other sensitive information.
4. Operational Disruption: Compromised Splunk instances could impact an organization’s ability to monitor its infrastructure and detect other security incidents.

  Remediation

Splunk has provided fixes for all reported vulnerabilities. To mitigate these issues:

For Splunk Enterprise:

• Upgrade to versions 9.4.0, 9.3.3, 9.2.5, or 9.1.8 (for CVE-2025-20229)
• Upgrade to versions 9.4.1, 9.3.3, 9.2.5, or 9.1.8 (for CVE-2025-20231)

For Splunk Cloud Platform:

• Splunk is actively monitoring and patching affected instances

For Splunk Secure Gateway App:

• Upgrade to versions 3.8.38 or 3.7.23
• If not using the app’s functionality, consider removing or disabling it as a temporary mitigation

  Recommendations for Organizations

1. Immediate Patching: Prioritize upgrading affected Splunk deployments to the latest secure versions.
2. Access Control Review: Audit user roles and permissions within your Splunk environment, paying particular attention to non-administrative users.
3. Network Segmentation: Limit direct external access to Splunk instances where possible.
4. Security Monitoring: Implement additional monitoring for unusual activities in your Splunk environment.
5. Threat Hunting: Conduct a review of historical logs to identify potential exploitation attempts.

 How CinchOps Can Secure Your Business

At CinchOps, we understand the critical role that monitoring tools like Splunk play in your security infrastructure. Our comprehensive security services can help protect your organization from vulnerabilities like these:

• Vulnerability Management: Our continuous scanning and patch management ensures your critical systems remain up-to-date against the latest threats.
• Security Monitoring: Our 24/7 SOC leverages advanced detection capabilities to identify and respond to potential exploitation attempts.
• Incident Response: Our expert team is ready to assist with investigation and remediation should a security incident occur.
• Security Architecture Review: We can help design secure deployments of tools like Splunk to minimize attack surfaces.
• Penetration Testing: Our offensive security team can validate the effectiveness of your security controls and identify weaknesses before attackers do.

Discover more about our enterprise-grade and business protecting cybersecurity services on our Cybersecurity page.

Don’t wait for a breach to occur. Contact CinchOps today to learn how we can help secure your critical infrastructure and protect your business from emerging threats.

FREE CYBERSECURITY ASSESSMENT