CVE-2026-76403
In Splunk Connect for Kafka versions below 2.2.7, an unauthenticated user positioned in the network path could read or alter all relevant data sent from the connector when Kerberos authentication is used with Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Event Collector in Splunk Enterprise. The vulnerability is possible because the Kerberos authentication path does not apply the configured certificate validation options when it builds the HTTP client. For more information see Install Splunk Connect for Kafka (https://help.splunk.com/en/data-management/integrate-data-with-add-ons/splunk-connect-for-kafka/2.2/install/install-splunk-connect-for-kafka), Security configurations for Splunk Connect for Kafka (https://help.splunk.com/en/splunk-enterprise/get-data-in/splunk-connect-for-kafka/2.2/configure/security-configurations-for-splunk-connect-for-kafka), and Set up and use HTTP Event Collector with configuration files (https://help.splunk.com/en/splunk-enterprise/get-data-in/get-started-with-getting-data-in/9.4/get-data-with-http-event-collector/set-up-and-use-http-event-collector-with-configuration-files) in the Splunk documentation.
What this means
- Exposure
- Exploitable remotely over the network, without authentication and with no action from the victim. The attack does require particular conditions, which makes it less systematic.
- Impact
- An attacker can read sensitive data and modify or destroy data.
- Weakness
- The TLS certificate is not properly validated, making traffic interception possible.
- Likelihood
- Its EPSS score stays low: nothing points to imminent exploitation, which is no reason to leave it unpatched.
What to doFold into the next patch cycle. Start with the instances exposed to the internet.
Read automatically from the CVSS vector, the weakness type (CWE) and the EPSS score. The technical description above remains the one published by NIST.