In Splunk Enterprise versions below 10.4.2, 10.2.6, 10.0.9, and 9.4.14, an authenticated user who does not hold a role with the edit_manager_xml capability could write a malicious Splunk Web Manager Extensible Markup Language (XML) configuration. When the same user opens the affected Splunk Web Manager page, Splunk Enterprise runs attacker-controlled operating-system commands as the user account running Splunk Enterprise. The vulnerability is possible because Splunk Web does not require the edit_manager_xml capability before accepting Splunk Web Manager XML configuration changes.
The vulnerability affects instances with Splunk Web turned on. Turning Splunk Web off is a possible workaround. See Disable unnecessary Splunk Enterprise components and the web.conf configuration specification file for more information on turning off Splunk Web.
Upgrade Splunk Enterprise to versions 10.4.2, 10.2.6, 10.0.9, and 9.4.14, or higher.