# CVE-2026-76401: Splunk Connect for Kafka regular expression denial of service

Source: https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-76401-splunk-connect-for-kafka-regular-expression-denial-of-service  
Publisher: Junglewise Threat Intelligence, https://junglewise.ai/threats  
Published: 2026-08-19. Updated: 2026-09-25  
License: CC BY 4.0 with a link back

CVE-2026-76401 · Severity: medium · CVSS 5.9 · Published 2026-08-19

Splunk Connect for Kafka is a data integration component that connects Apache Kafka message streams to Splunk for logging and monitoring. An unauthenticated attacker with network access to the Kafka Connect REST API can craft a malicious regular expression that causes a worker thread to hang indefinitely, blocking event delivery and degrading the data pipeline's availability.

Technologies: [Splunk Connect For Kafka](https://junglewise.ai/threats/technologies/connect-for-kafka). Vendors: [Splunk](https://junglewise.ai/threats/vendors/splunk).

## Quick answers

**Is CVE-2026-76401 exploited in the wild?** No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-76401 being exploited in the wild.

**How severe is CVE-2026-76401?** Medium severity, with a CVSS score of 5.9, published 19 August 2026.

**Which products and versions are affected?** Splunk Connect For Kafka below 2.2.7.

**Is there a fix for CVE-2026-76401?** No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.

**How is CVE-2026-76401 attacked?** It is attacked over the network, in a hosted service.

**Am I affected by CVE-2026-76401?** Check whether you run Splunk Connect For Kafka at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

## Technical details

This is a Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) vulnerability in the timestamp extraction feature of Splunk Connect for Kafka versions below 2.2.7. The vulnerable component evaluates user-supplied regular expressions without enforcing execution time limits, allowing an attacker to craft a pathological regex pattern that consumes excessive CPU resources when matched against event data. The attack requires network-level access to the Kafka Connect REST API and no authentication. A successful exploit causes a worker thread to become unresponsive, halting event delivery for the affected connector. The fix is available in version 2.2.7 or later.

## Affected products

- Splunk Connect for Kafka below 2.2.7

## Timeline

- 2026-08-19: disclosed
- 2026-08-19: advisory: SVD-2026-0808

## References

- [https://advisory.splunk.com/advisories/SVD-2026-0808](https://advisory.splunk.com/advisories/SVD-2026-0808)

## Related threats

- [Splunk Connect for Kafka improper certificate validation in Kerberos authentication](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-76403-splunk-connect-for-kafka-improper-certificate-validation-in)
- [Splunk Connect for Kafka server-side request forgery via REST API](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-76402-splunk-connect-for-kafka-server-side-request-forgery-via-rest-api)
- [Splunk Connect for Kafka denial of service in REST API](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-76400-splunk-connect-for-kafka-denial-of-service-in-rest-api)