GHSA-p978-56hq-r492
HIGHGrafana folders admin only permission privilege escalation
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.
Blast Radius
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-2022-36062 that affects Grafana instances which are using Grafana role-based access control (RBAC).
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-2022-36062)
Summary
On August 29 we have received a bug report for Grafana role-based access control (RBAC) and confirmed a vulnerability in the Grafana. This vulnerability impacts folders/dashboards with Admin only permissions and where RBAC was ever enabled at least once.
When RBAC is enabled, Grafana runs migrations which translate legacy access control permissions into RBAC permissions. The migrations contain a bug, which grants additional access to folders/dashboards which only had Admin role grant, resulting in a privilege escalation where Editors can edit and Viewers can view the folder/dashboard which they should not have access to.
The CVSS score for this vulnerability is 6.4 Moderate (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L).
Impacted versions
All Grafana installations where the RBAC was at least enabled once and there are folders/dashboards with only Admin grant.
Solutions and mitigations
To fully address CVE-2022-36062 please upgrade your Grafana instances. They are only required if you have ever enabled RBAC and have dashboards/folders where Admin is the only permission..
If you can’t upgrade, as a workaround when impacted folder/dashboard is known, the additional permissions can be removed manually.
Appropriate patches have been applied to Grafana Cloud.
Timeline
Here is a timeline starting from when we originally learned of the issue.
- 2022-08-27: External report received about a bug in Grafana role-based access control.
- 2022-08-30: The bug is confirmed as a vulnerability.
- 2022-08-31: Mitigation is applied to Grafana Cloud.
- 2022-08-31: Release timeline determined: 2022-09-06 for private customer release, 2022-09-20 for public release.
- 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 | ≥ 8.5.0&&< 8.5.13 | 8.5.13 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/grafana/grafana | ≥ 9.0.0&&< 9.0.9 | 9.0.9 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/grafana/grafana | ≥ 9.1.0&&< 9.1.6 | 9.1.6 |
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. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update github.com/grafana/grafana to 8.5.13 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-p978-56hq-r492 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 pinpoints whether GHSA-p978-56hq-r492 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-p978-56hq-r492. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-p978-56hq-r492 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-p978-56hq-r492 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.