● Medium · CVSS 6.3

How to Fix CVE-2026-20162: Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) through Path Traversal in Splunk Enterprise

Q: Is CVE-2026-20162 being actively exploited?

Not at the time of writing. It is not listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. That status can change, so monitor the vendor advisory and the KEV catalog if the system is exposed.

Q: How severe is CVE-2026-20162?

CVSS rates it 6.3 (Medium). Use that score to set your patch priority next to the other items in your queue.

Q: Do I have to take Splunk Enterprise offline to apply the patch?

It depends on the deployment. High-availability or clustered installs can usually patch one node at a time with no full outage. Standalone installs typically need a short restart. Always follow the vendor's documented upgrade steps.

Q: What if my vulnerability scanner still flags CVE-2026-20162 after I patch?

Re-run the scan after a service restart, then confirm the scanner's plugin set is up to date. Some scanners detect by banner version only and lag the official fix metadata by a release.

Other vulnerabilities in the same area that are worth patching alongside this one:

How to Fix CVE-2026-32229: CWE-290 in Hub — CWE-290 in Hub
How to Fix CVE-2026-33064: Command Injection in free5gc — Command Injection in free5gc
How to Fix CVE-2026-27016: Critical Vulnerability in librenms , Critical Vulnerability in librenms
How to Fix CVE-2026-45251: Use-After-Free in FreeBSD , Use-After-Free in FreeBSD
How to Fix CVE-2026-42594: Race Condition in gotenberg , Race Condition in gotenberg

*By Sai Kiran Pandrala*

⚡ At a glance


Severity	CVSS 6.3, Medium
Actively exploited?	No
Affected	Splunk Enterprise (10.0 < 10.0.3, 9.4 < 9.4.9, 9.3 < 9.3.9); Splunk Cloud Platform (10.2.2510 < 10.2.2510.4, 10.1.2507 < 10.1.2507.15, 10.0.2503 < 10.0.2503.11)
Fixed in	10.0.3, 9.4.9, 9.3.9, 10.2.2510.4
Type (CWE)	CWE-79: The software does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes user-controllable input before it is placed in output that is used as a web page that is served to other users.

What is CVE-2026-20162?

In Splunk Enterprise versions below 10.2.0, 10.0.3, 9.4.9, and 9.3.9, and Splunk Cloud Platform versions below 10.2.2510.4, 10.1.2507.15, 10.0.2503.11, and 9.3.2411.123, a low-privileged user who does not hold the "admin" or "power" Splunk roles could craft a malicious payload when creating a View (Settings - User Interface - Views) at the /manager/launcher/data/ui/views/_new endpoint leading to a Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) through a path traversal vulnerability. This could result in execution of unauthorized JavaScript code in the browser of a user. The vulnerability requires the...

In practical terms, a successful attacker gets unauthorized file reads or writes through path traversal. There is no confirmed in-the-wild exploitation listed in CISA's KEV catalog at the time of writing, but the CVSS rating still warrants prompt patching.

Am I affected?

You're affected if you run Splunk Enterprise at any version in the Affected row above. Use these probes to find your installed build:


# Confirm the installed version via your package manager
dpkg -l | grep -i splunk   # Debian/Ubuntu
rpm -qa | grep -i splunk   # RHEL/CentOS/Rocky

How to fix CVE-2026-20162

The primary fix is to upgrade to the patched build listed in the Fixed in row above (10.0.3, 9.4.9, 9.3.9, 10.2.2510.4). Pick the platform that matches your install and run the commands below.

Linux (Ubuntu / Debian)


sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade splunk-enterprise
# Confirm the installed version meets or exceeds 10.0.3
dpkg -s splunk-enterprise | grep ^Version

Linux (RHEL / CentOS / Rocky)


sudo dnf upgrade --security splunk-enterprise -y
rpm -q splunk-enterprise

Windows (PowerShell, admin)


# Try winget first
winget upgrade --id 'Splunk.Splunk Enterprise' --silent --accept-source-agreements --accept-package-agreements
# If winget does not know the product, download the patched installer from the vendor and:
Start-Process -FilePath "$env:TEMP\SplunkEnterprise-10.0.3.msi" -ArgumentList '/qn /norestart' -Wait

PowerShell script (Windows) - detect, back up, upgrade, verify, log


# Run as Administrator
$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
$log = "$env:ProgramData\SplunkEnterprise-Patch-CVE-2026-20162.log"
function Write-Log($msg) { "$(Get-Date -Format s)  $msg" | Tee-Object -FilePath $log -Append }

Write-Log "Starting CVE-2026-20162 remediation for Splunk Splunk Enterprise"

# 1. Detect: replace the path/version probe with one valid for your install
$installed = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product |
    Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*Splunk*' } |
    Select-Object -First 1 -ExpandProperty Version)
Write-Log "Detected version: $installed"

if (-not $installed) {
    Write-Log "Product not installed on this host; nothing to do."
    return
}
if ([version]$installed -ge [version]'10.0.3') {
    Write-Log "Already at fixed version $installed; no action needed."
    return
}

# 2. Backup configuration to a timestamped folder
$backup = "$env:ProgramData\SplunkEnterprise-Backup-$(Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd-HHmm)"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $backup -Force | Out-Null
# Adjust the source path to match your install
$src = "$env:ProgramFiles\Splunk\Splunk Enterprise"
if (Test-Path $src) { Copy-Item -Path $src -Destination $backup -Recurse -Force }
Write-Log "Backed up config to $backup"

# 3. Apply the patched installer (place the verified file on a share or staging path)
$installer = "$env:TEMP\SplunkEnterprise-10.0.3.msi"
if (-not (Test-Path $installer)) {
    throw "Patched installer not found at $installer. Stage it from your software repo first."
}
Start-Process msiexec.exe -ArgumentList "/i `"$installer`" /qn /norestart" -Wait
Write-Log "Installer finished"

# 4. Verify
$verify = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product |
    Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*Splunk*' } |
    Select-Object -First 1 -ExpandProperty Version)
if ([version]$verify -ge [version]'10.0.3') {
    Write-Log "SUCCESS: now at $verify (>= 10.0.3)"
} else {
    Write-Log "FAILURE: still at $verify after install"
    exit 1
}

Bash script (Linux) - detect, back up, upgrade, verify, log


#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
LOG=/var/log/splunk-enterprise-patch-cve-2026-20162.log
log()  { echo "$(date -Iseconds)  $*" | tee -a "$LOG"; }

log "Starting CVE-2026-20162 remediation for Splunk Splunk Enterprise"

# 1. Detect installed version (works for deb and rpm packages)
if command -v dpkg >/dev/null && dpkg -s splunk-enterprise >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    CURRENT=$(dpkg-query -W -f='${Version}' splunk-enterprise)
    PKG_MGR=apt
elif command -v rpm >/dev/null && rpm -q splunk-enterprise >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    CURRENT=$(rpm -q --queryformat '%{VERSION}' splunk-enterprise)
    PKG_MGR=dnf
else
    log "splunk-enterprise not installed via apt or rpm; check your package manager or vendor instructions."
    exit 0
fi
log "Detected: splunk-enterprise=$CURRENT (manager=$PKG_MGR)"

# 2. Backup config
BACKUP=/var/backups/splunk-enterprise-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M)
mkdir -p "$BACKUP"
for d in /etc/splunk-enterprise /etc/${pkg%%-*} ; do
    [ -d "$d" ] && cp -a "$d" "$BACKUP/" && log "Backed up $d to $BACKUP"
done

# 3. Upgrade
if [ "$PKG_MGR" = apt ]; then
    sudo apt-get update -y
    sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade -y splunk-enterprise
else
    sudo dnf upgrade --security -y splunk-enterprise
fi

# 4. Verify
if [ "$PKG_MGR" = apt ]; then
    NEW=$(dpkg-query -W -f='${Version}' splunk-enterprise)
else
    NEW=$(rpm -q --queryformat '%{VERSION}' splunk-enterprise)
fi
log "After upgrade: $NEW"

# Optionally compare against 10.0.3 with dpkg --compare-versions or sort -V
log "Done. Restart the affected service if the package install did not."

If you can't patch immediately

These are runnable hardening commands. They reduce blast radius but they're not a replacement for the vendor patch.

Reject `../` and encoded variants at the reverse proxy

nginx:


location / {
    if ($request_uri ~* "(\.\./|%2e%2e/|%2e%2e%2f|%2f%2e%2e)") { return 403; }
    proxy_pass http://backend;
}

Apache mod_rewrite:


RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (\.\./|%2e%2e/|%2f%2e%2e) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F]


add_header Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'" always;
add_header X-Frame-Options DENY always;
add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff always;

How to verify the fix worked

Run the version probe again and confirm the running build matches the Fixed in row above.


# Confirm the running build matches the patched version listed by the vendor
# Example for Linux package installs:
dpkg -l | grep -i "splunk"   # Debian/Ubuntu
rpm -qa | grep -i "splunk"   # RHEL/CentOS/Rocky

Expected output: the package version should meet or exceed 10.0.3.

Then re-run any vulnerability scanner you used previously and confirm the finding for CVE-2026-20162 has cleared. Sweep your logs for the indicators of compromise listed in the vendor or CISA advisory, especially if the system was internet-reachable during the disclosure window.

Frequently asked questions

Is CVE-2026-20162 being actively exploited?

Not at the time of writing. It is not listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. That status can change, so monitor the vendor advisory and the KEV catalog if the system is exposed.

How severe is CVE-2026-20162?