A significant security flaw has been discovered in Grafana, a widely-used open-source platform for monitoring and observability, which suffers from a severe SQL injection vulnerability. This vulnerability resides in the Grafana SQL package, specifically within the SqlDatasource.ts file, where SQL queries are managed and executed. Attackers with valid user credentials can exploit this vulnerability by sending a malicious POST request to the /api/ds/query endpoint. The malicious request would include a specially crafted raw SQL parameter, enabling the execution of arbitrary SQL commands that could lead to data leakage and other security breaches.
The vulnerability affects all versions of Grafana, including the most recent releases, thus posing a significant threat to numerous organizations that depend on this tool for data analytics and monitoring. According to reports on GitHub, the risk level of this vulnerability is high because it allows attackers the potential to access or manipulate sensitive data stored in the databases connected to Grafana. The widespread impact of this vulnerability underscores the importance of stringent security measures in systems that integrate with Grafana.
The core issue of this vulnerability lies in the lack of proper validation of SQL queries that are sent through the Grafana backend. The affected code blocks in the Grafana source code allow SQL statements to be executed without adequate checks, enabling attackers to inject malicious SQL code. This vulnerability specifically allows for time-based blind SQL injection, which is a more stealthy form of SQL injection that does not return errors from the database, making it particularly difficult to detect and prevent.
Despite the severity of the vulnerability, the Grafana security team controversially does not recognize this flaw as a vulnerability but rather as a feature of the backend system. This stance highlights the challenges in perceiving and managing security risks, particularly in open-source projects. Mitigation strategies recommend that data sources connected to Grafana should implement robust filtering and validation mechanisms to prevent SQL injection attacks. Organizations using Grafana are urged to undertake continuous security assessments and stay vigilant for unusual activities in their systems, ensuring that they are not compromised by this critical vulnerability.
