Splunk RCE via User XSLT
The following analytic identifies potential remote code execution (RCE) attempts via user-supplied Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) in Splunk versions 9.1.x. It detects this activity by analyzing…
Description
The following analytic identifies potential remote code execution (RCE) attempts via user-supplied Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) in Splunk versions 9.1.x. It detects this activity by analyzing `splunkd_ui` logs for specific URI patterns and status codes indicative of XSLT injection attempts. This activity is significant because successful exploitation could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the Splunk server. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to full system compromise, unauthorized data access, and further lateral movement within the network.
Detection logic
Detection requirements
Known benign triggers
- This search will provide information for investigation and hunting possible abuse of user-supplied XSLT. There may be false positives and results should individually evaluated. Please evaluate the source IP and useragent responsible for creating the requests.
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
References
| Reference | Cited by |
|---|---|
| advisory.splunk.com/advisories/SVD-2023-1104 | Only this detection cites it |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 6cb7e011-55fb-48e3-a98d-164fa854e37e
- Tagged by the source as
- Splunk VulnerabilitiesEndpointapplicationSplunk CloudSplunk EnterpriseSplunk Enterprise Securityendpoint
Licence
- Published under
- Apache License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
- Obtained under
- Apache-2.0Read the origin licence
Authorship
- Published
- Aug 26, 2026
- Version
- 1