Improper access control in Splunk AI Toolkit role search filter inheritance
CVE-2026-20238 affects Splunk AI Toolkit versions below 5.7.3. The vulnerability is caused by the app shipping an authorize.conf file containing an srchFilter entry that modifies Splunk's built-in user role. In Splunk, inherited search filters are combined using the logical OR operator in SPL. Because of that behavior, the AI Toolkit's injected filter on the parent user role can override or negate more restrictive srchFilter constraints configured on child custom roles. As a result, users who do not hold the admin or power roles can bypass intended search restrictions and access data that should remain restricted by custom role-based search filters.
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Impact, mitigation & remediation
What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.
Impact
What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.
srchFilter restrictions and view confidential corporate datasets or other sensitive indexed data. The issue is an access-control bypass and data exposure problem rather than code execution or privilege escalation on the host.Mitigation
If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.
srchFilter line from the app's local configuration so it no longer modifies the built-in user role. Because the provided context notes that this workaround may broaden access to ai_agent_run_history_index, administrators should apply additional restrictions as needed and validate effective permissions after any configuration change.Remediation
Patch, then assume compromise.
srchFilter behavior in affected deployments to ensure custom roles still enforce the intended search restrictions after upgrade.Exploits
No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.
No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.
Affected products & vendors
Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.
Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.
Recent activity
4 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
An improper access control vulnerability in Splunk AI Toolkit caused by misconfigured role inheritance that can allow low-privileged users to access sensitive data.
An access control bypass vulnerability in the Splunk AI Toolkit caused by a default authorize.conf srchFilter entry that overrides more restrictive inherited child-role filters, allowing low-privileged users to access confidential datasets.
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Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.
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