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CVE-2026-20253 is a critical missing-authentication vulnerability in Splunk Enterprise, and also reported for certain Splunk Cloud Platform releases, involving the PostgreSQL sidecar service recovery functionality. In affected Splunk Enterprise 10.2 releases prior to 10.2.4 and 10.0 releases prior to 10.0.7, a network-reachable attacker can access a PostgreSQL sidecar service endpoint without valid credentials and invoke file-related operations. The exposed recovery functionality permits arbitrary file creation or truncation on the host because authentication controls are absent for a critical function. Public technical reporting further describes abuse of backup and restore workflows, including attacker-controlled file path input and PostgreSQL connection parameters, which can extend the primitive from file manipulation to arbitrary file write and potential remote code execution under the Splunk service account. Splunk Enterprise 9.4 and earlier are reported as not affected.
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1 valid exploit after Mallory filtered fakes, detection scripts, and README-only repos (4 hidden).
Repository is a small standalone Python PoC for CVE-2026-20253 against Splunk Enterprise. It contains one primary code file (splunk_cve_2026_20253.py), dependency metadata (requirements.txt), and several Spanish-language documentation files covering installation, execution examples, detection/mitigation, contribution guidance, and security policy. The exploit script uses requests and disables TLS verification warnings. Its core logic defines a SplunkExploit class with methods to: (1) test unauthenticated access to the Splunk recovery backup endpoint using a POST request with JSON and an empty Basic Authorization header; (2) abuse the backup endpoint to create or truncate arbitrary files by supplying attacker-controlled backupFile paths; and (3) attempt RCE by preparing a Python payload that runs a shell command via /bin/sh -c and writes output to a chosen file. The script references the full attack chain involving PostgreSQL backup/restore primitives and a controlled PostgreSQL server, but the included code is explicitly described as a simplified demonstration that overwrites a Splunk Secure Gateway Python script path to achieve execution. In main(), it supports vulnerability checking, cleanup, arbitrary file creation as a proof step, command execution, and optional retrieval of output from a web-accessible Splunk static directory. Overall, this is a real exploit PoC rather than a detector-only script; however, based on the provided content it appears partially simplified/truncated relative to a full end-to-end weaponized chain, so OPERATIONAL is the best fit.
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213 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
A critical Splunk Enterprise vulnerability allowing unauthenticated access to a PostgreSQL sidecar service, enabling arbitrary file creation or truncation.
A missing authentication vulnerability affecting Splunk Enterprise.
A vulnerability in the PostgreSQL sidecar endpoint of Splunk Enterprise that allows unauthenticated file operations and may lead to remote code execution.
An unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability in Splunk Enterprise caused by exposure of PostgreSQL sidecar recovery functionality through Splunk Web, enabling proxy access to internal endpoints, arbitrary file creation/write, credential reuse via .pgpass, and eventual code execution.
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Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.
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