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GrafanaApplication

CVE-2021-28146

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-03-22
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 7.4.5 or later.
See remediation →
71/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The team sync HTTP API in Grafana Enterprise 7.4.x before 7.4.5 has an Incorrect Access Control issue. On Grafana instances using an external authentication service, this vulnerability allows any authenticated user to add external groups to existing teams. This can be used to grant a user team permissions that the user isn't supposed to have.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Grafana Enterprise 7.4.x before 7.4.5 has an Incorrect Access Control vulnerability in the team sync HTTP API. When using external authentication services (such as LDAP, OAuth, or SAML), any authenticated user can add external groups to existing teams regardless of their actual permissions, enabling unauthorized privilege escalation to team-level access.

MitigationUpgrade to Grafana Enterprise 7.4.5 or later. Review existing team memberships and audit logs for unauthorized modifications to external group mappings.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
GrafanaApplication
Affected:>= 7.4.0, < 7.4.5

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check Grafana version
    Run 'grafana-server -v' or check the version file in your Grafana installation directory, or log into the Grafana UI and navigate to Server Admin > Stats to view the version information
    Affected if The installed version is 7.4.0, 7.4.1, 7.4.2, 7.4.3, or 7.4.4 (any version >= 7.4.0 and < 7.4.5)
  2. Verify external authentication is enabled
    Check your grafana.ini configuration file for sections under [auth] such as [auth.ldap], [auth.oauth], or [auth.saml], or log into the Grafana UI and navigate to Configuration > Authentication to see enabled auth providers
    Affected if LDAP, OAuth, or SAML authentication is enabled and in use
  3. Confirm team sync feature is configured
    Check your grafana.ini for team_sync configuration (such as auth.grafana_com or other team sync providers), or in the Grafana UI navigate to Configuration > Plugins and look for team sync-related plugins, or check existing team configurations for external group mappings
    Affected if Team sync is configured and external groups are being synced to teams
  4. Audit recent team membership changes
    Review Grafana server logs for API calls to /api/teams/*/externalGroups endpoints, or check the audit log feature if enabled in Configuration > Audit to identify unauthorized modifications to team external groups
    Affected if There are team external group additions made by users who should not have permissions to modify team memberships

You are affected if you are running Grafana Enterprise version 7.4.0 through 7.4.4 AND have external authentication (LDAP/OAuth/SAML) with team sync enabled, allowing any authenticated user to potentially modify team external groups.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 7.4.5 or later
Fixed in 7.4.5
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Grafana Enterprise 7.4.5 or later. Review existing team memberships and audit logs for unauthorized modifications to external group mappings.

Fix this in Grafana Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,800.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-28146 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data