# CVE-2025-20298: Incorrect permission assignment on Universal Forwarder for Windows during new installation or upgrade

> CVE-2025-20298: Incorrect permission assignment on Universal Forwarder for Windows during new installation or upgrade. CVSS 8.0 (CVSS 3.1).

Canonical: https://rewindex.com/cve/CVE-2025-20298
Last updated: 2026-06-17T08:41:22Z

- Published: 2025-06-02 17:14 UTC · Updated: 2026-06-17 08:41 UTC · Assigner: cisco
- CVSS: 8.0 (CVSS 3.1) · Severity: High · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS: 0.29%, 21th percentile (scored 2026-10-25)
- CISA KEV: no
- CWE: CWE-732

## Description

In Universal Forwarder for Windows versions below 9.4.2, 9.3.4, 9.2.6, and 9.1.9, a new installation of or an upgrade to an affected version can result in incorrect permissions assignment in the Universal Forwarder for Windows Installation directory (by default, C:\\Program Files\\SplunkUniversalForwarder). This lets non-administrator users on the machine access the directory and all its contents.

## Affected vendors and products

- Splunk: Splunk/UniversalForwarder for Windows

## Tracked companies

- [Splunk](https://rewindex.com/company/splunk.md)

## References

- [CVE record on cve.org](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-20298)
- [NVD entry](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-20298)
- [https://advisory.splunk.com/advisories/SVD-2025-0602](https://advisory.splunk.com/advisories/SVD-2025-0602)

---

_Sources: CVE records from the CVE Program (cve.org). CVE® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. (https://www.cve.org/) This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. (https://nvd.nist.gov/) Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog from CISA. (https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog) EPSS scores from FIRST (Exploit Prediction Scoring System). (https://www.first.org/epss/)_


---
Canonical: https://rewindex.com/cve/CVE-2025-20298 · Markdown: https://rewindex.com/cve/CVE-2025-20298.md · JSON: https://rewindex.com/api/v1/cves/CVE-2025-20298 · Data licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) · Generated 2026-10-26T03:12:59.685Z