CVE-2023-40598 Command Injection in Splunk Enterprise Using External Lookups
An attacker can execute arbitrary code on Splunk Enterprise instances by creating a malicious external lookup that leverages a legacy internal function.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2023-40598?
CVE-2023-40598 is a high-severity command injection vulnerability in Splunk Splunk, published on 30 Aug 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
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.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-40598?
It affects 2 products.
Products include Splunk Splunk, Splunk Splunk Cloud Platform.
How do I fix CVE-2023-40598?
No fix has been published for CVE-2023-40598 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and pass arguments to programs as a list instead of through a shell. More about Command injection.
Is CVE-2023-40598 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-40598 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Splunk Splunk
- CVE-2026-20253 Splunk Enterprise Missing Authentication for Critical Function
- CVE-2026-76268 Missing Authentication for Critical Function in the Patroni REST API in Splunk Enterprise
- CVE-2026-76284 Improper Neutralization in Splunk Enterprise
- CVE-2026-76285 Improper Adherence to Coding Standards in Splunk Enterprise
- CVE-2017-17067 Auth bypass in n/a
Sources
Also known as GHSA-5ghx-2vfx-7347.