Security Digest · Vulnerability record
CVE-2021-41244: Grafana Fine-grained access control vulnerability
Grafana is an open-source platform for monitoring and observability.
CVSS 9.1 Critical EPSS 2.9% · p87
Should you act?
Critical, preconditions apply
Severe if exploited, but exploitation needs conditions that may not apply to you. This signal is computed from CISA KEV, EPSS and CVSS data; it is not an editorial verdict.
- No confirmed exploitation. It is not in CISA’s KEV catalog. That can change quickly after a public write-up; re-check if you are affected.
- EPSS 2.9%, percentile 87: FIRST’s model estimates a 2.9% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 87% of all scored CVEs (elevated). EPSS is a probability, not a verdict.
- Needs an account (high (admin)). Exposure depends on who can log in.
- Only applies if your dependency tree includes
github.com/grafana/grafana(Go) >= 8.0.0, < 8.2.4, fixed in 8.2.4. Check your lockfile, including transitive dependencies.
What it is
Grafana is an open-source platform for monitoring and observability. In affected versions when the fine-grained access control beta feature is enabled and there is more than one organization in the Grafana instance admins are able to access users from other organizations. Grafana 8.0 introduced a mechanism which allowed users with the Organization Admin role to list, add, remove, and update users’ roles in other organizations in which they are not an admin. With fine-grained access control enabled, organization admins can list, add, remove and update users' roles in another organization, where they do not have organization admin role. All installations between v8.0 and v8.2.3 that have fine-grained access control beta enabled and more than one organization should be upgraded as soon as possible. If you cannot upgrade, you should turn off the fine-grained access control using a feature flag.
From the GitHub advisory
Impact On Nov. 2, during an internal security audit, we discovered that when the fine-grained access control beta feature is enabled and there is more than one organization in the Grafana instance, Grafana 8.0 introduced a mechanism which allowed users with the Organization Admin role to list, add, remove, and update users’ roles in other organizations in which they are not an admin.
Patches Fixed in 8.2.4
Workarounds All installations between v8.0 and v8.2.3 that have fine-grained access control beta enabled and more than one organization should be upgraded as soon as possible. If you cannot upgrade, you should turn off the fine-grained access control using a feature flag.
Grafana Cloud instances have not been affected by the vulnerability.
Reporting security issues If you think you have found a security vulnerability, please send a report to security@grafana.com. This address can be used for all of Grafana Labs' open source and commercial products (including, but not limited to Grafana, Grafana Cloud, Grafana Enterprise, and grafana.com). We can accept only vulnerability reports at this address. We would prefer that you encrypt your message to us by using our PGP key. The key fingerprint is
Weakness type: CWE-610, CWE-863.
Product: github.com/grafana/grafana (Go) · Assigned by: GitHub_M · Published: 2021-11-15
Affected and fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable | First fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Go | github.com/grafana/grafana | >= 8.0.0, < 8.2.4 | 8.2.4 |
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions (per CVE record) |
|---|---|---|
| grafana | grafana | >= 8.0.0, < 8.2.4 |
Severity scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_M | 3.1 | 9.1 Critical | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| GitHub | 3.1 | 9.1 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- Attack vector: network (remotely reachable)
- Attack complexity: low
- Privileges required: high (admin)
- User interaction: none
- Scope: changed (can affect other components)
CVSS measures how bad a flaw is if exploited, not how likely exploitation is. Read it next to the exploitation data below.
Exploitation and urgency
- CISA KEV: not listed (no confirmed in-the-wild exploitation known to CISA).
- FIRST EPSS (model of 2026-10-21): 2.89% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 87.
Timeline
- — CVE record published by GitHub_M
- — GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-mpwp-42x6-4wmx published (critical)
- — CVE record last updated
Sources and references
Original sources first. Version and fix details should always be confirmed against the vendor or project advisory.
Vulnerability records
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-mpwp-42x6-4wmx github.com
- CVE.org record CVE-2021-41244 cve.org
- NVD entry CVE-2021-41244 nvd.nist.gov
Other references from the CVE record and advisory
- github.com github.com
- grafana.com grafana.com
- [oss-security] 20211115 Grafana 8.2.4 released with security fixes openwall.com
- security.netapp.com security.netapp.com