Privilege escalation in Splunk Universal Forwarder for Windows



Risk Low
Patch available YES
Number of vulnerabilities 1
CVE-ID CVE-2025-20298
CWE-ID CWE-276
Exploitation vector Local
Public exploit N/A
Vulnerable software
 Splunk Universal Forwarder
Server applications / File servers (FTP/HTTP)

Vendor Splunk Inc.

Security Bulletin

This security bulletin contains one low risk vulnerability.

1) Incorrect default permissions

EUVDB-ID: #VU110074

Risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 5.9 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2025-20298

CWE-ID: CWE-276 - Incorrect Default Permissions

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to escalate privileges on the system.

The vulnerability exists due to incorrect default permissions set on the "C:\\Program Files\\SplunkUniversalForwarder" folder after installation of software upgrade. A local unprivileged user can modify files in the folder and escalate privileges on the system.

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Splunk Universal Forwarder: 9.1.0 - 9.4.1

CPE2.3 External links

https://advisory.splunk.com/advisories/SVD-2025-0602


Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

How the attacker can exploit this vulnerability?

The attacker would have to send a specially crafted request to the affected application in order to exploit this vulnerability.

The attacker would have to login to the system and perform certain actions in order to exploit this vulnerability.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.



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