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AgentApplication · Grafana

CVE-2024-8996

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-09-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 0.43.2 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
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
Unquoted Search Path or Element vulnerability in Grafana Agent (Flow mode) on Windows allows Privilege Escalation from Local User to SYSTEM This issue affects Agent Flow: before 0.43.2

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 Agent in Flow mode on Windows uses an unquoted service path, allowing a local authenticated user to place a malicious executable in an intermediate directory path that gets executed when the service starts, enabling privilege escalation to SYSTEM level privileges.

MitigationUpgrade Grafana Agent (Flow mode) to version 0.43.2 or later which contains the fix for the unquoted service path vulnerability.

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
AgentApplication
Affected:< 0.43.2

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

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 if Grafana Agent service exists on the system
    Open PowerShell and run: Get-WmiObject win32_service | Where-Object {$_.Name -like '*grafana*' -or $_.DisplayName -like '*grafana*'} | Select-Object Name, DisplayName, State
    Affected if No Grafana Agent service is found, the system is not affected by this specific vulnerability
  2. Verify Grafana Agent is running in Flow mode
    Check the Grafana Agent service configuration or running processes for Flow mode indicators. Run: Get-Process -Name 'grafana-agent*' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object Name, Id
    Affected if Grafana Agent is not installed or not running in Flow mode, this specific vulnerability does not apply
  3. Check the installed Grafana Agent version
    Run: & 'C:\Program Files\grafana-agent\grafana-agent.exe' --version (adjust path if installed elsewhere) or check the version via Windows Programs and Features
    Affected if The installed version is 0.43.2 or higher, the system is not vulnerable to this CVE
  4. Inspect the Windows service binary path for quoting
    Run: (Get-WmiObject win32_service -Filter "Name='grafana-agent-flow'").BinaryPathName (or similar service name). Check if the path contains spaces and is not enclosed in quotation marks
    Affected if The binary path contains spaces and is NOT wrapped in quotes, the service is vulnerable to unquoted path exploitation

A system is affected if Grafana Agent Flow mode is installed on Windows with version lower than 0.43.2 and the service binary path is unquoted, allowing privilege escalation via path injection.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 0.43.2 or later
Fixed in 0.43.2
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Grafana Agent (Flow mode) to version 0.43.2 or later which contains the fix for the unquoted service path vulnerability.

Recommended fix High confidence

0.43.2 or later

  1. 1. Identify all Windows servers running Grafana Agent in Flow mode with versions prior to 0.43.2
  2. 2. Download Grafana Agent version 0.43.2 or later from the official releases (github.com/grafana/agent/releases)
  3. 3. Stop the Grafana Agent service on the Windows machine: `sc stop grafana-agent`
  4. 4. Backup the current Grafana Agent configuration directory (typically located at `C:\Program Files\Grafana Agent` or `C:\ProgramData\grafana-agent`)
  5. 5. Install the new version by running the installer or replacing the binary files
  6. 6. Verify the installed version by running: `grafana-agent.exe --version`
  7. 7. Start the Grafana Agent service: `sc start grafana-agent`
  8. 8. Confirm the service is running correctly and check logs for any errors
Caveat Review release notes for any breaking changes between your current version and 0.43.2, particularly regarding configuration syntax or feature changes in Flow mode

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Agent Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

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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-2024-8996 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