In Splunk Enterprise versions below 10.4.2, 10.2.6, 10.0.9, and 9.4.14, an unauthenticated user who has access to a trusted distributed search private key could forge an administrative session token, access all relevant data, affect system integrity, and disrupt service availability. The vulnerability is possible because the distributed search authentication token endpoint does not require a signed request to identify a configured search peer, allowing the request to fall back to shared local key material. For more information see About distributed search (https://help.splunk.com/en/splunk-enterprise/administer/distributed-search/10.4/overview-of-distributed-search/about-distributed-search) and authentication.conf (https://help.splunk.com/en/splunk-enterprise/administer/admin-manual/10.4/configuration-file-reference/10.4.2-configuration-file-reference/authentication.conf) in Splunk documentation.

Project Subscriptions

No data.

Advisories

No advisories yet.

Fixes

Solution

Upgrade Splunk Enterprise to versions 10.4.2, 10.2.6, 10.0.9, and 9.4.14, or higher. Set `strictPeerNameValidation = true` in `authentication.conf` on every distributed node, then restart Splunk Enterprise.


Workaround

Turn off legacy distributed search token fallback by setting strictPeerNameValidation = true in the authentication.conf configuration file if you do not use distributed search peers that omit peername. Restart Splunk Enterprise on every node in the distributed environment after applying the setting. For more information see [authentication.conf](https://help.splunk.com/en/splunk-enterprise/administer/admin-manual/10.4/configuration-file-reference/10.4.2-configuration-file-reference/authentication.conf) in the Splunk documentation.

History

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 21:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In Splunk Enterprise versions below 10.4.2, 10.2.6, 10.0.9, and 9.4.14, an unauthenticated user who has access to a trusted distributed search private key could forge an administrative session token, access all relevant data, affect system integrity, and disrupt service availability. The vulnerability is possible because the distributed search authentication token endpoint does not require a signed request to identify a configured search peer, allowing the request to fall back to shared local key material. For more information see About distributed search (https://help.splunk.com/en/splunk-enterprise/administer/distributed-search/10.4/overview-of-distributed-search/about-distributed-search) and authentication.conf (https://help.splunk.com/en/splunk-enterprise/administer/admin-manual/10.4/configuration-file-reference/10.4.2-configuration-file-reference/authentication.conf) in Splunk documentation.
Title Improper Authentication through REST API Distributed Search Token Requests in Splunk Enterprise
Weaknesses CWE-287
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 8.1, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'}


Projects

Sign in to view the affected projects.

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: cisco

Published:

Updated: 2026-08-19T21:34:37.625Z

Reserved: 2026-08-19T12:02:03.627Z

Link: CVE-2026-76338

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

No data.

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses