CVE-2024-53243 in Splunk
Summary
by MITRE • 12/10/2024
In Splunk Enterprise versions below 9.3.2, 9.2.4, and 9.1.7 and versions below 3.2.462, 3.7.18, and 3.8.5 of the Splunk Secure Gateway app on Splunk Cloud Platform, a low-privileged user that does not hold the “admin“ or “power“ Splunk roles could see alert search query responses using Splunk Secure Gateway App Key Value Store (KVstore) collections endpoints due to improper access control.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/10/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-53243 represents a critical access control flaw within Splunk Enterprise and its Secure Gateway app component. This weakness affects multiple version ranges across different Splunk products, specifically targeting Splunk Enterprise versions below 9.3.2, 9.2.4, and 9.1.7, while also impacting Splunk Secure Gateway app versions below 3.2.462, 3.7.18, and 3.8.5 on Splunk Cloud Platform. The vulnerability stems from inadequate authorization controls that permit low-privileged users to access sensitive data through the Key Value Store collections endpoints, which are typically restricted to users with elevated administrative privileges. This flaw directly violates fundamental security principles and creates potential exposure for critical alert search queries that should remain protected from unauthorized access. The technical implementation of access controls appears to have been insufficiently validated, allowing users without proper administrative roles to traverse the application's security boundaries and retrieve data that should be restricted to users holding either the "admin" or "power" roles within the Splunk environment.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data exposure, as it fundamentally undermines the trust model of Splunk Enterprise's access control mechanisms. Low-privileged users who gain access to alert search query responses through the KVstore collections endpoints can potentially extract sensitive operational data, including security event details, system configurations, and other intelligence that should remain confidential within secure monitoring environments. This access could enable adversaries to understand the organization's security posture, identify potential vulnerabilities in monitoring systems, and develop targeted attack strategies based on observed alert patterns. The vulnerability specifically affects the Splunk Secure Gateway app's Key Value Store functionality, which serves as a critical component for maintaining secure communication between Splunk instances and external systems. From a cybersecurity perspective, this represents a privilege escalation vector that could be leveraged by malicious insiders or external attackers who have gained initial access to a low-privileged account. The flaw aligns with CWE-285, which addresses improper authorization issues, and demonstrates how insufficient access control validation can create persistent security weaknesses in enterprise monitoring platforms. The impact is particularly severe in environments where Splunk serves as the primary security information and event management (SIEM) solution, as the exposed data could include sensitive threat intelligence and security event correlations that would be valuable to adversaries.
Organizations affected by CVE-2024-53243 should implement immediate mitigations while planning for comprehensive security assessments of their Splunk environments. The primary recommendation involves upgrading to the patched versions of Splunk Enterprise and the Secure Gateway app to ensure proper access control enforcement. Additionally, security administrators should conduct thorough access control reviews to identify any potential unauthorized access that may have occurred prior to patching. Network segmentation and monitoring of KVstore collection endpoint access should be implemented as additional defensive measures to detect and prevent unauthorized access attempts. The vulnerability's impact on Splunk Cloud Platform environments requires special attention to ensure that the security controls are properly enforced across all tenant configurations. Organizations should also consider implementing additional logging and alerting mechanisms around access to sensitive KVstore collections to provide better visibility into potential exploitation attempts. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper access control implementation in enterprise security platforms and highlights the need for regular security assessments to identify and remediate similar issues. The flaw represents a failure in the principle of least privilege enforcement, where users should only have access to resources necessary for their specific roles, and underscores the importance of maintaining robust security controls in monitoring and analytics platforms that process sensitive operational data.