CVE-2025-20370: 
Splunk Enterprise vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2025-20370 is a denial of service (DoS) vulnerability discovered in Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Cloud Platform. The vulnerability was disclosed on October 1, 2025, affecting Splunk Enterprise versions below 10.0.1, 9.4.4, 9.3.6, and 9.2.8, and Splunk Cloud Platform versions below 9.3.2411.108, 9.3.2408.118 and 9.2.2406.123. The flaw specifically impacts the Splunk Web component when LDAP authentication is configured (Splunk Advisory, NVD).

The vulnerability allows a user with the high-privilege capability 'change_authentication' to send multiple LDAP bind requests to a specific internal endpoint. This action results in high server CPU usage, potentially leading to a denial of service condition that persists until the Splunk Enterprise instance is restarted. The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.9 (Medium) with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H. The flaw is classified under CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling) and CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) (NVD, Splunk Advisory).

When exploited, this vulnerability can cause high CPU usage on the affected Splunk Enterprise server, leading to a denial of service condition. The impact is significant enough to require a system restart to restore normal functionality. The attack specifically affects the availability of the system while not compromising confidentiality or integrity (Splunk Advisory, Cybersecurity News).

Splunk has released patches to address this vulnerability. Users are advised to upgrade to Splunk Enterprise versions 10.0.1, 9.4.4, 9.3.6, 9.2.8, or higher. For Splunk Cloud Platform, patches are being automatically applied. If immediate upgrading is not possible, administrators can implement workarounds by either removing the 'change_authentication' capability from user roles or disabling Splunk Web if it's not required (Splunk Advisory, Security Online).