CVE-2021-43798
Path Traversal in Grafana 8.0.1 – 8.0.7
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:NCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2021-43798 is a high-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Grafana Grafana. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked in the top 0.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
Grafana, an open-source monitoring and observability platform, contains a directory traversal vulnerability in versions 8.0.0-beta1 through 8.3.0. The flaw resides in the handling of the URL path /public/plugins/<plugin-id>/, where any installed plugin identifier can be supplied, enabling unauthenticated access to arbitrary local files on the server. Grafana Cloud instances were never affected by this issue, which is tracked as CWE-22 with a CVSS 3.1 score of 7.5.
An attacker with network access to a vulnerable Grafana instance can exploit the path traversal without authentication or user interaction to read sensitive files such as configuration data or credentials, resulting in high confidentiality impact while leaving integrity and availability unaffected.
Official guidance in the Grafana security advisory and associated patches directs administrators to upgrade immediately to versions 8.0.7, 8.1.8, 8.2.7, or 8.3.1. Public references, including the GitHub commit and oss-security disclosures, provide additional detail on the vulnerable paths and recommended mitigations.
Proof-of-concept exploits have been published on Packet Storm, confirming straightforward remote file-read attacks against unpatched deployments.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-0581
Vulnerability Data
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…
more
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.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 09 October 2025
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
—
—
—
V5.3.2
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Validates pathnames and filenames to prevent traversal outside intended directories.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.
PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.