Detection: Splunk Improperly Formatted Parameter Crashes splunkd

REMOVED DETECTION

This detection has been removed from the Splunk Threat Research content library and is no longer maintained or supported.

Reason: Detection is deprecated as the associated CVEs have been patched in the latest Splunk release.

Removed in version: 5.16.0

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at research@splunk.com.

Updated Date: 2026-05-14 ID: 08978eca-caff-44c1-84dc-53f17def4e14 Author: Chase Franklin, Rod Soto, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects the execution of improperly formatted INGEST_EVAL parameters in Splunk Enterprise, which can crash the splunkd service. It leverages the Splunk_Audit.Search_Activity datamodel to identify ad-hoc searches containing specific keywords. This activity is significant because it can disrupt Splunk operations, leading to potential data loss and service downtime. If confirmed malicious, an attacker could exploit this to cause a denial of service, impacting the availability and reliability of the Splunk environment.

Search

 1
 2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time)
 3as lastTime from datamodel=Splunk_Audit.Search_Activity where (Search_Activity.search="*makeresults*"AND
 4Search_Activity.search="*ingestpreview*transforms*") Search_Activity.search_type=adhoc
 5Search_Activity.search!="*splunk_improperly_formatted_parameter_crashes_splunkd_filter*"
 6Search_Activity.user!=splunk-system-user by Search_Activity.search, Search_Activity.info,
 7Search_Activity.total_run_time, Search_Activity.user, Search_Activity.search_type
 8
 9| `drop_dm_object_name(Search_Activity)` 
10
11| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
12
13| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
14
15| `splunk_improperly_formatted_parameter_crashes_splunkd_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Splunk	Splunk	`'splunkd_ui_access'`	`'splunkd_ui_access.log'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
security_content_summariesonly	`summariesonly=`summariesonly_config `allow_old_summaries=`oldsummaries_config `fillnull_value=`fillnull_config``
splunk_improperly_formatted_parameter_crashes_splunkd_filter	``

splunk_improperly_formatted_parameter_crashes_splunkd_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1499	Endpoint Denial of Service	Impact

CVE

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`N/A`
Earliest Time	`N/A`
Latest Time	`N/A`
Schedule Window	`N/A`
Creates Finding (Notable)	No
Creates Intermediate Finding (Risk Event)	No

TTP detections generate a Finding (Notable) and may generate Intermediate Findings (Risk Events) for associated entities.

Implementation

Requires access to audittrail and use of Splunk_Audit.Search_Activity datamodel.

Known False Positives

This is a hunting search it should be focused on affected products, otherwise it is likely to produce false positives.

Associated Analytic Story

Splunk Vulnerabilities

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	Not Applicable	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	Not Applicable	N/A	`N/A`	`N/A`
Integration	Not Applicable	N/A	`N/A`	`N/A`

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub |

Version: 8