Grafana Labs < 11

CVE-2025-1088 is an improper input validation issue in Grafana affecting versions prior to 11.6.2. When an authenticated user with dashboard-editing privileges saves a dashboard with an *excessively long title or panel name*, Chromium-based browsers rendering that dashboard become unresponsive. There is no server-side crash, no code execution, no data exposure — the impact is confined to the client-side rendering engine of whoever subsequently loads the dashboard.

Vendor severity is MEDIUM in Tenable's plugin catalog but the upstream CVSS is 2.7 (LOW). Reality tracks the upstream number, not the plugin bucket. The chain requires an authenticated Editor role, targets only browser responsiveness (kill-tab recovers), and has no lateral or persistence value. Calling this MEDIUM overstates it; it is textbook backlog hygiene.

Why this verdict

• Privilege gate: requires an authenticated Editor+ role — an attacker who already has this can trash dashboards, exfil query results, and abuse datasource proxying in ways far more damaging than a tab hang.
• Impact ceiling: confidentiality = none, integrity = none, availability = one victim tab per navigation event. Server keeps serving.
• Role multiplier: Grafana is typically a *monitoring dashboard tier* — high-visibility but not identity, PKI, hypervisor, or backup infrastructure. Even in the worst deployment role (NOC wallboard) the outcome is a frozen wallboard, not fleet compromise. No role-based floor is triggered.
• No KEV, negligible EPSS, no weaponization — this is not on any adversary's target list.
• Tenable's MEDIUM label conflicts with the upstream CVSS 2.7 LOW — trust the vector, not the bucket.

Why not higher?

MEDIUM would imply meaningful production impact or a plausible pivot. Neither exists: no code execution, no data disclosure, no session takeover, and the trigger requires the exact privilege (Editor) that already allows the attacker to do worse things with legitimate features.

Why not lower?

IGNORE would be wrong because the fix is free (upgrade to 11.6.2, already shipped in distro backports) and leaving unpatched Grafana on the estate creates version drift that complicates future response. It's real work-item hygiene, just not urgent.

1. Audit and prune Editor/Admin role assignments — Grafana orgs frequently accumulate stale Editors from onboarding scripts. Removing Editor from users who only need Viewer eliminates the population that can trigger this bug — do this as part of quarterly access review, no mitigation SLA required for LOW.
2. Enforce SSO + MFA on Grafana — Prevents credential-stuffed access to Editor accounts; align with your existing IdP standards, no mitigation SLA for LOW — treat as baseline hardening.
3. Add a WAF/reverse-proxy request-body size cap in front of Grafana — A 1 MB body cap on /api/dashboards/db blocks the pathological payload without affecting real dashboards. Configure on the fronting nginx/HAProxy/ALB during your next routine change window.
4. Upgrade Grafana to 11.6.2+ (or apply RHSA-2025:0662 / ALSA-2025:8666 / RLSA-2025:8666) — The real fix. Roll through the standard patch train — noisgate remediation SLA for LOW is backlog, target the next scheduled Grafana upgrade cycle.

Run on an *auditor workstation* with network reach and a Grafana API token (Viewer role is enough — this only reads /api/health). Invoke: GRAFANA_URL=https://grafana.example.com GRAFANA_TOKEN=glsa_xxx ./check_cve_2025_1088.sh. No elevated privileges needed on the Grafana host.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# check_cve_2025_1088.sh — determine if a Grafana instance is exposed to CVE-2025-1088
# Exit codes: 0 PATCHED, 1 VULNERABLE, 2 UNKNOWN
set -u

: "${GRAFANA_URL:?Set GRAFANA_URL, e.g. https://grafana.example.com}"
: "${GRAFANA_TOKEN:?Set GRAFANA_TOKEN (Viewer-role service account token is sufficient)}"

FIXED_MAJOR=11
FIXED_MINOR=6
FIXED_PATCH=2

resp=$(curl -sS -k -H "Authorization: Bearer ${GRAFANA_TOKEN}" "${GRAFANA_URL%/}/api/health" || true)
if [ -z "$resp" ]; then
  echo "UNKNOWN: no response from ${GRAFANA_URL}/api/health"
  exit 2
fi

version=$(printf '%s' "$resp" | sed -n 's/.*"version"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p')
if [ -z "$version" ]; then
  echo "UNKNOWN: could not parse version from health endpoint"
  exit 2
fi

# Strip pre-release / build metadata
core=${version%%-*}
core=${core%%+*}
IFS='.' read -r maj min pat <<< "$core"
maj=${maj:-0}; min=${min:-0}; pat=${pat:-0}

vuln=0
if [ "$maj" -lt "$FIXED_MAJOR" ]; then vuln=1
elif [ "$maj" -eq "$FIXED_MAJOR" ] && [ "$min" -lt "$FIXED_MINOR" ]; then vuln=1
elif [ "$maj" -eq "$FIXED_MAJOR" ] && [ "$min" -eq "$FIXED_MINOR" ] && [ "$pat" -lt "$FIXED_PATCH" ]; then vuln=1
fi

if [ "$vuln" -eq 1 ]; then
  echo "VULNERABLE: Grafana ${version} < 11.6.2 (CVE-2025-1088)"
  exit 1
fi

echo "PATCHED: Grafana ${version} >= 11.6.2"
exit 0

Sources

1. Tenable plugin 240850
2. NVD — CVE-2025-1088
3. GitHub Advisory GHSA-crvv-6w6h-cv34
4. SentinelOne vulnerability entry
5. Snyk — Improper Input Validation in grafana-loki
6. CVE Details — CVE-2025-1088
7. GitLab Advisory Database
8. Amazon Linux ALAS — CVE-2025-1088