Name:Adobe ColdFusion Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Read id:695aceae-21db-4e7f-93ac-a52e39d02b93 version:8 date:2026-03-27 author:Michael Haag, Splunk status:production type:Anomaly Description:The following analytic detects potential exploitation of the Adobe ColdFusion vulnerability, CVE-2023-26360, which allows unauthenticated arbitrary file read.
It monitors POST requests to the "/cf_scripts/scripts/ajax/ckeditor/*" endpoint using the Web datamodel.
This activity can be significant due to the vulnerability's high CVSS score of 9.8, indicating severe risk.
If confirmed malicious, it could lead to unauthorized data access, further attacks, or severe operational disruptions. Data_source:
-Suricata
search:| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime
how_to_implement:This detection requires the Web datamodel to be populated from a supported Technology Add-On like Splunk for Apache, Splunk for Nginx, or Splunk for Palo Alto. known_false_positives:In the wild, we have observed three different types of attempts that could potentially trigger false positives if the HTTP status code is not in the query.
These include:
- "/cf_scripts/scripts/ajax/ckeditor/plugins/filemanager/iedit.cfc?method=wizardHash&_cfclient=true&returnFormat=wddx&inPassword=foo"
- "/cf_scripts/scripts/ajax/ckeditor/plugins/filemanager/uploadedFiles/2U9Uyvv qwP4PGaZpjARz5VJGfpCk.jsp"
- "/cf_scripts/scripts/ajax/ckeditor/plugins/filemanager/upload.cfm"
These could be legitimate requests depending on the context of your organization. Therefore, it is recommended to modify the analytic as needed to suit your specific environment. References: -https://www.rapid7.com/db/modules/auxiliary/gather/adobe_coldfusion_fileread_cve_2023_26360/ -https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2023/CVE-2023-26360.yaml drilldown_searches: name:'View the detection results for - "$dest$"' search:'%original_detection_search% | search dest = "$dest$"' earliest_offset:'$info_min_time$' latest_offset:'$info_max_time$' name:'View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$dest$"' search:'| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$dest$") starthoursago=168 | 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:'$info_max_time$' tags: cve: - 'CVE-2023-26360' analytic_story: - 'Adobe ColdFusion Arbitrary Code Execution CVE-2023-29298 CVE-2023-26360' asset_type:Network atomic_guid: mitre_attack_id: - 'T1190' product: - 'Splunk Enterprise' - 'Splunk Enterprise Security' - 'Splunk Cloud' security_domain:network
