Splunk RCE PDFgen Render

name: Splunk RCE PDFgen Render
id: bc2b7437-0400-438b-9537-21ab5b7d2d53
version: 8
creation_date: '2024-07-01'
modification_date: '2026-06-24'
author: Rod Soto, Chase Franklin
status: deprecated
type: TTP
description: This is a hunting search designed to find and discover exploitation attempts against Splunk pdfgen render endpoint which results in remote
data_source:
    - Splunk
search: index=_internal sourcetype=splunk_pdfgen _raw IN ("*base64*", "*lambda*", "*system*") | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by index, sourcetype, host, _raw | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` | `splunk_rce_pdfgen_render_filter`
how_to_implement: Requires access to internal indexes.
known_false_positives: This search will hunt for exploitation attempts against Splunk PDFgen render function, and not all requests are necesarily malicious so there will be false positives.
references:
    - https://advisory.splunk.com/advisories/SVD-2024-0701
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for $host$
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search  host = $host$'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for $host$
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ($host$) starthoursago=168 endhoursago=1 | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
finding:
    title: Possible exploitation against $host$
    entity:
        field: host
        type: system
        score: 80
analytic_story:
    - Splunk Vulnerabilities
asset_type: Splunk Server
cve:
    - CVE-2024-36982
mitre_attack_id:
    - T1210
product:
    - Splunk Enterprise
    - Splunk Cloud
    - Splunk Enterprise Security
category: application
security_domain: endpoint
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1210/splunk/SVD-2024-0701_pdfgen_log_splunk_pdfgen.log
          source: /opt/splunk/var/log/splunk/pdfgen.log
          sourcetype: splunk_pdfgen
          index: _internal
      test_type: unit
deprecation_info:
    reason: Detection has been deprecated. The metadata along with the search are not accurately capturing the malicious activity.
    removed_in_version: 6.4.0
    replacement_content: []