Splunk® Enterprise

Securing Splunk Enterprise

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Splunk Enterprise version 7.3 is no longer supported as of October 22, 2021. See the Splunk Software Support Policy for details. For information about upgrading to a supported version, see How to upgrade Splunk Enterprise.
This documentation does not apply to the most recent version of Splunk® Enterprise. For documentation on the most recent version, go to the latest release.
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How to secure and harden your Splunk software installation

Use this checklist as a roadmap for this manual to help you secure your Splunk Enterprise configuration and protect your data.

Set up authenticated users and manage user access

Use certificates and encryption to secure communications for your Splunk Enterprise configuration

Splunk Enterprise comes with a set of default certificates and keys that demonstrate encryption. Where possible, deploy your own certificates and configure them to secure Splunk Enterprise communications. See About securing Splunk with SSL.

Harden your Splunk Enterprise instances to reduce vulnerability and risk

Audit your system regularly

Audit events provide information about what has changed in your Splunk Enterprise configuration. It gives you the where and when, as well as the identity of the actor who implemented the change. Leveraging audit events provides better security and other benefits.

  • Audit your system regularly to monitor user and administrator access, as well as other activities that could tip you off to unsafe practices or security breaches.
  • Keep an eye on activities within Splunk Enterprise, such as searches or configuration changes. You can use this information for compliance reporting, troubleshooting, and attribution during incidence response.
  • Audit events are especially useful in distributed Splunk Enterprise configurations for detecting configuration and access control changes across many Splunk Enterprise instances. To learn more, see Audit Splunk Enterprise activity.
  • Use the file system-based monitoring available out of the box on most Splunk-supported operating systems. For more information about monitoring, see Monitor Files and Directories in the Getting Data In Manual.
Last modified on 04 February, 2020
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This documentation applies to the following versions of Splunk® Enterprise: 7.3.0, 7.3.1, 7.3.2, 7.3.3, 7.3.4, 7.3.5, 7.3.6, 7.3.7, 7.3.8, 7.3.9


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