CVE-2022-35957 — grafana
MEDIUMCVE-2022-35957 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.6) CWE-290 vulnerability in github.com/grafana/grafana. A fix is available for github.com/grafana/grafana — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Authentication Bypass in Grafana via auth proxy allowing escalation from admin to server admin
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2022-35957.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2022-35957 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,156 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/grafana/grafana🐹github.com/grafana/grafana🐹github.com/grafana/grafanaReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Today we are releasing Grafana 9.1.6, 9.0.9, 8.5.13. This patch release includes a Moderate severity security fix for CVE-2022-35957 that affects Grafana instances which are using Grafana Auth Proxy.
Release 9.1.6, latest patch, also containing security fix:
Release 9.0.9, only containing security fix:
Release 8.5.13, only containing security fix:
Appropriate patches have been applied to Grafana Cloud and as always, we closely coordinated with all cloud providers licensed to offer Grafana Pro. They have received early notification under embargo and confirmed that their offerings are secure at the time of this announcement. This is applicable to Amazon Managed Grafana and Azure's Grafana as a service offering.
Privilege escalation (CVE-2022-35957)
Summary
On August 9 an internal security review identified a vulnerability in the Grafana which allows an escalation from Admin privileges to Server Admin when Auth proxy authentication is used.
Auth proxy allows to authenticate a user by only providing the username (or email) in a X-WEBAUTH-USER HTTP header: the trust assumption is that a front proxy will take care of authentication and that Grafana server is publicly reachable only with this front proxy.
Datasource proxy breaks this assumption:
- it is possible to configure a fake datasource pointing to a localhost Grafana install with a
X-WEBAUTH-USERHTTP header containing admin username. - This fake datasource can be called publicly via this proxying feature.
The CVSS score for this vulnerability is 6.6 Moderate (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).
Impacted versions
All Grafana installations where the Auth Proxy is used.
Solutions and mitigations
To fully address CVE-2022-35957 please upgrade your Grafana instances. They are only required if you are using Auth proxy. If you can’t upgrade, as an alternative, you can deactivate the auth proxy.
Appropriate patches have been applied to Grafana Cloud.
Timeline
Here is a timeline starting from when we originally learned of the issue.
- 2022-08-09: Vulnerability is reported as a result of an Internal security audit.
- 2022-08-09: Release timeline determined: 2022-09-06 for private customer release, 2022-09-20 for public release.
- 2022-08-09: Confirmed that Grafana Cloud is not impacted.
- 2022-09-06: Private release.
- 2022-09-20: Public release.
Reporting security issues
If you think you have found a security vulnerability, please send a report to [email protected]. 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
F988 7BEA 027A 049F AE8E 5CAA D125 8932 BE24 C5CA
The key is available from keyserver.ubuntu.com.
Security announcements
We maintain a security category on our blog, where we will always post a summary, remediation, and mitigation details for any patch containing security fixes.
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Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/grafana/grafana | ≥ 9.1.0&&< 9.1.6 | 9.1.6go get github.com/grafana/grafana@v9.1.6 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/grafana/grafana | ≥ 9.0.0&&< 9.0.9 | 9.0.9go get github.com/grafana/grafana@v9.0.9 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/grafana/grafana | all versions | 8.5.13go get github.com/grafana/grafana@v8.5.13 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/grafana/grafana, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/grafana/grafana to 9.1.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-35957 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2022-35957 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-35957. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Ceph Storage 6.1 | rhceph/rhceph-6-dashboard-rhel9:6-75 | RHSA-2023:3642 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | grafana-0:9.0.9-2.el9 | RHSA-2023:2167 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-35957 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-35957 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.