Detection: Splunk Code Injection via custom dashboard leading to RCE

REMOVED DETECTION

This detection has been removed from the Splunk Threat Research content library and is no longer maintained or supported.

Reason: Detection has been deprecated. The affected Splunk software versions (8.1.12, 8.2.9, and 9.0.2) are no longer supported, having reached End of Life (EOL) between 2023 and 2024. Also, the logic is not perfectly capturing the malicious activity.

Removed in version: 6.4.0

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

Updated Date: 2026-07-29 ID: b06b41d7-9570-4985-8137-0784f582a1b3 Author: Rod Soto Type: Hunting Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic identifies attempts to exploit a vulnerability in Splunk Enterprise versions below 8.2.9, 8.1.12, and 9.0.2, where an authenticated user can execute arbitrary code via the dashboard PDF generation component. It detects this activity by analyzing events in the _internal index with the file=export parameter. This behavior is significant because it indicates a potential code injection attack, which could lead to remote code execution (RCE). If confirmed malicious, an attacker could gain unauthorized access, execute arbitrary commands, and potentially compromise the entire Splunk environment.

Search

 1`splunkd_ui` uri_path=*/data/ui/views/* OR uri_path=*saved/searches/* 
 2| dedup uri_path 
 3| eval URL=urldecode("uri_path")
 4| rex field=URL "\/saved\/searches\/(?<NAME>[^\/]*)" 
 5| rex field=URL "\/data\/ui\/views\/(?<NAME1>[^\/]*)" 
 6| eval NAME=NAME."( Saved Search )",NAME1=NAME1."( Dashboard )" 
 7| eval NAME=coalesce(NAME,NAME1) 
 8| eval STATUS=case(match(status,"2\d+"),"SUCCESS",match(status,"3\d+"),"REDIRECTION",match(status,"4\d+") OR match(status,"5\d+"),"ERROR") 
 9| stats list(NAME) as DASHBOARD_TITLE,list(method) as HTTP_METHOD,list(status) as Status_Code,list(STATUS) as STATUS by user 
10| rename user as User 
11| `splunk_code_injection_via_custom_dashboard_leading_to_rce_filter`

Data Source

No data sources specified for this detection.

Macros Used

Name	Value
splunkd_ui	`index=_internal sourcetype=splunkd_ui_access`
splunk_code_injection_via_custom_dashboard_leading_to_rce_filter	``

splunk_code_injection_via_custom_dashboard_leading_to_rce_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

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

Hunting detections do not generate a Finding (Notable) or Intermediate Findings (Risk Events).

Implementation

This detection does not require you to ingest any new data. The detection does require the ability to search the _internal index.

Known False Positives

Not all exports and downloads are malicious, special attention must be put as well on /en-US/splunkd/__raw/services/pdfgen/render in the context of this search.

Associated Analytic Story

No associated analytic story

References

https://www.splunk.com/en_us/product-security.html

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`

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