CVE-2025-20386 is a high-severity local privilege management vulnerability in Splunk Enterprise for Windows affecting versions earlier than 10.0.2, 9.4.6, 9.3.8, and 9.2.10. During a new installation or an upgrade, the Windows installer can apply incorrect permissions to the Splunk Enterprise installation directory, resulting in non-administrator local users being able to access the directory and its contents. Because the affected directory can contain executables, scripts, modules, and configuration files used by Splunk services, the weakness can expose critical resources to unauthorized local modification or abuse. The issue is consistent with incorrect permission assignment for a critical resource and can create a path for local privilege escalation when privileged Splunk service processes consume attacker-modified content.
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What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.
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No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.
Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.
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12 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
A vulnerability referenced as CVE-2025-20386. Details not specified in the content.
A local privilege escalation vulnerability in Splunk Enterprise for Windows caused by overly broad NTFS permissions on Splunk installation directories, allowing non-admin users to modify binaries/config/scripts that are executed by Splunk services running with elevated (LocalSystem) privileges.
A high-severity vulnerability in Splunk Enterprise for Windows where incorrect directory permissions during installation or upgrade allow non-administrator users local access to the installation directory and its contents, potentially leading to privilege escalation or unauthorized access.
Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.
Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.
Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.
Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.