Grafana Open User Registration Scanner

Grafana is a leading open-source platform used for monitoring and observability of systems, allowing teams to visualize and understand complex datasets from multiple data sources. Typically employed by IT and DevOps teams, Grafana is used for setting up real-time alerts, and this helps in tailoring data monitoring to business-specific needs. Grafana is adopted across industries, aiding in the integration and evaluation of data logs, server operations, and application performance metrics. It offers extensive plugins and user community support, which enhances its utility in various enterprise environments. Besides, its open-source nature allows users to freely modify and adapt it according to individual or organizational requirements. Users often pair Grafana with data sources like Prometheus, Elasticsearch, and SQL databases, making it a versatile and flexible tool for data analytics and visualization.

Open User Registration in Grafana refers to a configuration setup allowing users to independently create accounts within the Grafana instance. While designed to ease user onboarding, this can incidentally open the system to potential misuse or abuse if public signup is unrestricted. Adequately managing user registration policies is crucial, as it relates directly to the security and integrity of the monitored data. This vulnerability arises when once-open policies remain active unintentionally, allowing malicious actors to enter potentially sensitive data environments. Monitoring and strictly controlling these registration processes are essential, especially in environments where data privacy and security are paramount. The potential for unwanted data exposure grows with unmonitored registration access unless balanced with strict governance policies.

The detected vulnerability involves the endpoint responsible for public user signup within the Grafana instance. Technically, the vulnerability manifests when the "/api/user/signup/step2" endpoint is accessible without necessary restrictions, allowing unknown users to successfully execute account creation processes. The vulnerability is compounded by the absence of necessary confirmation steps or restrictions that validate and verify the legitimacy of users attempting to create accounts. Furthermore, the endpoint’s exposure on publicly accessible networks increases the risk surface. Monitoring service integration points like headers (grafana_sess and grafana_user) and ensuring adequate status code verifications (HTTP 200 OK) are critical in keeping check of such vulnerabilities. Proper technical controls and effective configuration directives around this API endpoint are crucial to preventing unauthorized user signups.

Exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to unauthorized access, data breaches, and exposure of sensitive information to unauthorized individuals. Malicious users may be able to make unauthorized changes or extract sensitive data from the Grafana dashboards, causing severe integrity issues. This vulnerability can lead to increased vulnerabilities elsewhere in the system due to unauthorized users gaining access to legitimate functionalities. Fake accounts can clutter system dashboards and reports, hindering accurate monitoring and reporting. Continuous exploitation of this vulnerability could impact an organization's ability to maintain data integrity and confidentiality across its information systems. Organizations may also face compliance challenges if the data exposed includes sensitive customer or personal data, possibly leading to reputational damage or regulatory penalties.

REFERENCES

• https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/configuration/#disable_public_signup