Actively exploited vulnerability
Grafana Labs Grafana: file access flaw under attack
CVE-2021-43798 · Grafana Path Traversal Vulnerability
What is affected
Grafana Labs Grafana is mostly run by companies, schools and public bodies, not on home computers. You are unlikely to have it yourself, but organisations that hold your data may. Breaches that start with flaws like this one are how personal data ends up leaked.
Grafana contains a path traversal vulnerability that could allow access to local files.
What an attacker can do
This is a file access flaw. It lets an attacker read or write files they should never reach, such as configuration files that hold passwords, or upload a malicious file that the system then runs.
- How it is reached
- Over the internet or network
- Access the attacker needs
- No account needed
- Does the victim have to do something?
- No, works without the victim doing anything
What to do
- At home: nothing to install. Keep your own devices updated and use a different password for every service, so that a breach at one organisation does not open your other accounts.
- If you administer Grafana Labs Grafana at work: apply the vendor's fix or mitigation now and review logs for signs of compromise, because the flaw was being exploited before it was listed.
- If the product is past its support date and no fix exists, take it off the internet or retire it.
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Vendor advisories and fixes
- grafana.comgrafana.com/blog/2021/12/07/grafana-8.3.1-8.2.7-8.1.8-and-8.0.7-released-with-high-severit
How urgent is it
CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on October 9, 2025, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by October 30, 2025, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.
The EPSS model estimates a 89% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 99.8% of all scored vulnerabilities.
Its CVSS severity score is 7.5 out of 10 (high), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.
Technical description
Grafana is an open-source platform for monitoring and observability. Grafana versions 8.0.0-beta1 through 8.3.0 (except for patched versions) iss vulnerable to directory traversal, allowing access to local files. The vulnerable URL path is: `<grafana_host_url>/public/plugins//`, where is the plugin ID for any installed plugin. At no time has Grafana Cloud been vulnerable. Users are advised to upgrade to patched versions 8.0.7, 8.1.8, 8.2.7, or 8.3.1. The GitHub Security Advisory contains more information about vulnerable URL paths, mitigation, and the disclosure timeline.