CVE-2025-20298

Local file access via permissive installation ACL

Published Jun 2, 2025 · Updated Jun 2, 2025

Incorrect permissions in affected Splunk Universal Forwarder for Windows releases allow local users to access its installation directory. Installation or upgrade leaves an access-control grant for the built-in Users group on the installation tree, by default C:\Program Files\SplunkUniversalForwarder. The exposed state follows installation or upgrade; non-administrators can then reach every file beneath the path, and non-English Windows installations remain affected across the listed releases.

CVSS severity8.0
High
EPSS probability0.29%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Incorrect permissions in affected Splunk Universal Forwarder for Windows releases allow local users to access its installation directory. Installation or upgrade leaves an access-control grant for the built-in Users group on the installation tree, by default C:\Program Files\SplunkUniversalForwarder. The exposed state follows installation or upgrade; non-administrators can then reach every file beneath the path, and non-English Windows installations remain affected across the listed releases.

The record

CVE
CVE-2025-20298
Published
Jun 2, 2025
Updated
Jun 2, 2025
Vendor
Splunk, Inc.
Product
Splunk Universal Forwarder
Classifications
CWE-732, T1005
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Jun 2, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Jun 2, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=9.1 <9.1.9
  2. Affected versionversion=9.2 <9.2.6
  3. Affected versionversion=9.3 <9.3.4
  4. Affected versionversion=9.4 <9.4.2

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

Splunk, Inc. · Splunk Universal Forwarderversion=9.1 <9.1.9; version=9.2 <9.2.6; version=9.3 <9.3.4; version=9.4 <9.4.2

Published CVSS scores

8.0SplunkCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-732Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
T1005Data from Local System

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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