In Splunk Enterprise versions below 10.2.0, 10.0.2, 9.4.8, 9.3.9, and 9.2.12, and Splunk Cloud Platform versions below 10.2.2510.3, 10.1.2507.8, 10.0.2503.9, and 9.3.2411.121, a low-privileged user that does not hold the admin or power Splunk roles could craft a malicious payload into the realname, tz, or email parameters of the /splunkd/__raw/services/authentication/users/username REST API endpoint when they change a password. This could potentially lead to a client‑side denial‑of‑service (DoS). The malicious payload might significantly slow page load times or render Splunk Web temporarily unresponsive.
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either:
The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question.
The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute – and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.