CVE-2015-6514 in Splunk
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Dashboard in Splunk Enterprise 6.2.x before 6.2.4 and Splunk Light 6.2.x before 6.2.4 allows remote authenticated users to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/12/2022
The CVE-2015-6514 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw within Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Light products, specifically affecting versions 6.2.x prior to 6.2.4. This vulnerability resides in the Dashboard component of these security information and event management platforms, which are widely deployed across enterprise environments for log aggregation, monitoring, and threat detection. The flaw enables authenticated attackers to execute malicious scripts within the context of other users' sessions, potentially compromising the integrity of security monitoring operations and exposing sensitive data.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and output encoding mechanisms within the Dashboard interface. Attackers with valid credentials can manipulate dashboard parameters or input fields to inject malicious JavaScript code or HTML content. These injection points likely occur during the rendering process of dashboard elements where user-supplied data is not properly sanitized before being displayed to other users. The unspecified vectors suggest multiple potential entry points within the dashboard functionality, including but not limited to search queries, saved searches, or custom dashboard configurations that are processed and rendered without sufficient security controls.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as it can enable attackers to perform session hijacking, steal authentication tokens, and access sensitive monitoring data that the compromised user has permission to view. In enterprise environments where Splunk is used for security operations, this vulnerability could allow attackers to gain visibility into critical security events, potentially masking their activities while accessing confidential information. The authenticated nature of the attack means that the threat actor must already have legitimate access to the system, but this still represents a significant privilege escalation risk within the security monitoring infrastructure.
Organizations utilizing affected Splunk versions should prioritize immediate patching to address this vulnerability, as the remediation involves updating to Splunk Enterprise 6.2.4 or later versions that contain proper input validation and output encoding controls. Security teams should also implement network monitoring to detect potential exploitation attempts and review dashboard configurations to minimize the attack surface. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-79, which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws in web applications, and represents a typical example of how authenticated vulnerabilities can undermine security monitoring capabilities. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this as a technique involving credential access and privilege escalation, where adversaries leverage legitimate system access to expand their capabilities within the monitored environment, potentially compromising the integrity of the entire security operations center.