Grafana Patches CVSS 10.0 SCIM Flaw Enabling Impersonation and Privilege Escalation, CVE-2025-41115 (CVSS 10.0)

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Key Takeaways:

  • A critical security vulnerability (CVE-2025-41115) with a CVSS score of 10.0 has been identified in Grafana’s SCIM implementation.
  • Successful exploitation could lead to user impersonation and privilege escalation.
  • Patches have been released for Grafana Enterprise versions 12.0.6+security-01, 12.1.3+security-01, 12.2.1+security-01, and 12.3.0.
  • Organizations are strongly advised to apply the patches immediately and implement additional security measures.
  • PurpleOps offers services to help organizations mitigate the risks associated with this vulnerability.

Table of Contents:

Grafana has addressed a critical security vulnerability, CVE-2025-41115 (CVSS 10.0), with patches released to mitigate the risk of privilege escalation and user impersonation. This flaw resides within the System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM) component and could have significant implications for organizations utilizing Grafana for their analytics and observability needs. This blog post will provide a detailed breakdown of the vulnerability, its potential impact, and necessary steps to remediate it.

Grafana Patches CVSS 10.0 SCIM Flaw Enabling Impersonation and Privilege Escalation, CVE-2025-41115 (CVSS 10.0)

The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-41115, stems from how Grafana handles user identities within its SCIM implementation. SCIM is a standard designed to automate user provisioning and management across different systems. Grafana introduced this functionality in April 2025, and it remains in public preview. The core issue lies in the direct mapping of the SCIM externalId to Grafana’s internal user.uid.

Vardan Torosyan from Grafana explained that when SCIM provisioning is enabled and configured, a malicious or compromised SCIM client could provision a user with a numeric externalId. This numeric externalId could then be interpreted by Grafana as an existing internal numeric user ID.

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires specific conditions to be met. The enableSCIM feature flag must be set to true, and the user_sync_enabled configuration option within the [auth.scim] block must also be set to true. If both conditions are satisfied, an attacker could potentially impersonate existing users, including administrators, or escalate their privileges.

The affected Grafana Enterprise versions range from 12.0.0 to 12.2.1. Patches have been released in the following versions:

  • Grafana Enterprise 12.0.6+security-01
  • Grafana Enterprise 12.1.3+security-01
  • Grafana Enterprise 12.2.1+security-01
  • Grafana Enterprise 12.3.0

The vulnerability was discovered internally by Grafana on November 4, 2025, during a routine audit and testing process. Given the severity of the issue, Grafana has strongly advised users to apply the provided patches as soon as possible to minimize potential risks.

Understanding the Impact

The potential impact of CVE-2025-41115 is significant due to the nature of the affected component and the permissions it manages. Successful exploitation can lead to:

  • User Impersonation: An attacker could impersonate legitimate users, gaining access to sensitive data and resources within Grafana.
  • Privilege Escalation: An attacker could elevate their privileges to those of an administrator, allowing them to control Grafana configurations, access all data, and potentially compromise the entire system.
  • Data Breaches: By gaining unauthorized access, attackers could extract sensitive information from Grafana dashboards and data sources.
  • Denial of Service: An attacker could disrupt Grafana services by modifying configurations or deleting critical data.

Technical Analysis

The vulnerability arises from the insufficient validation and sanitization of the externalId provided during SCIM user provisioning. Grafana’s direct mapping of this external ID to the internal user.uid without proper checks allows an attacker to manipulate the system into associating a newly provisioned user with an existing internal account.

For example, if an attacker provisions a new user via SCIM with the externalId set to “1,” and the internal administrator account also has a user.uid of “1,” the newly provisioned user could inherit the administrator’s privileges. This is a critical flaw that bypasses standard authentication and authorization mechanisms.

Mitigation Strategies

The primary mitigation strategy is to immediately update Grafana Enterprise to one of the patched versions listed above. However, organizations should also consider implementing the following additional security measures:

  • Disable SCIM Provisioning: If SCIM provisioning is not actively used, consider disabling it to eliminate the attack surface. This can be done by setting the enableSCIM feature flag to false.
  • Review SCIM Client Configurations: Carefully review the configurations of your SCIM clients to ensure they are not compromised and are following security best practices.
  • Monitor User Provisioning Activities: Implement monitoring and alerting mechanisms to detect any suspicious user provisioning activities, such as the creation of users with numeric externalId values.
  • Implement Least Privilege Principles: Ensure that users are only granted the minimum necessary privileges to perform their tasks. This can help limit the impact of a successful privilege escalation attack.
  • Regular Security Audits: Conduct regular security audits of your Grafana environment to identify and address any potential vulnerabilities or misconfigurations.
  • Cyber Threat Intelligence Platform: Integrate a cyber threat intelligence platform to stay informed about emerging threats and vulnerabilities targeting Grafana and other critical infrastructure. A cyber threat intelligence platform can assist in identifying potential threats before they are exploited.
  • Breach Detection: Implement robust breach detection systems to quickly identify and respond to any unauthorized access attempts or malicious activities within your Grafana environment.
  • Supply-Chain Risk Monitoring: Employ tools and processes to monitor the security posture of your software supply chain, including third-party components used by Grafana. This can help identify vulnerabilities introduced through compromised dependencies.
  • Underground Forum Intelligence: Monitor underground forums and dark web channels for discussions and activities related to exploiting vulnerabilities in Grafana. This can provide early warnings about potential attacks.

Relevance to PurpleOps Services and Expertise

PurpleOps offers a range of services that can help organizations mitigate the risks associated with vulnerabilities like CVE-2025-41115. Our expertise in areas such as:

  • Cyber Threat Intelligence: We provide comprehensive cyber threat intelligence services, including real-time ransomware intelligence, dark web monitoring service, telegram threat monitoring, and underground forum intelligence to help organizations stay ahead of emerging threats and vulnerabilities. We also provide brand leak alerting to make sure no data is leaked.
  • Breach Detection: Our breach detection capabilities help organizations quickly identify and respond to any unauthorized access attempts or malicious activities.
  • Supply-Chain Risk Monitoring: We offer supply-chain risk monitoring services to help organizations assess and manage the security risks associated with their software supply chain.
  • PurpleOps Solutions: Our penetration testing services can help identify vulnerabilities in your Grafana environment and other critical systems.
  • PurpleOps Solutions: Our red team operations can simulate real-world attacks to test your organization’s security defenses and incident response capabilities.
  • Real-time Ransomware Intelligence: Proactive protection against ransomware attacks through continuous monitoring and analysis of the latest ransomware threats. Stay ahead of ransomware attackers with actionable intelligence.
  • Dark Web Monitoring Service: Uncover hidden threats by continuously monitoring the dark web. Detect compromised credentials, leaked data, and other potential security risks before they cause damage.
  • Telegram Threat Monitoring: Gain insights from Telegram channels used by threat actors. Identify emerging threats, leaked credentials, and potential attacks targeting your organization.
  • Underground Forum Intelligence: Enhance your threat intelligence with insights from underground forums. Understand attacker tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to better defend against cyber threats.

By leveraging PurpleOps’ services, organizations can strengthen their security posture and reduce the risk of successful exploitation of vulnerabilities like CVE-2025-41115.

Actionable Advice

For Technical Readers:

  • Immediately apply the provided patches to your Grafana Enterprise instances.
  • Review your SCIM client configurations and ensure they are secure.
  • Implement monitoring and alerting for suspicious user provisioning activities.
  • Consider disabling SCIM provisioning if it is not actively used.

For Business Leaders:

  • Ensure that your security teams are aware of this vulnerability and are taking appropriate steps to mitigate the risks.
  • Allocate resources for security audits and penetration testing to identify and address potential vulnerabilities in your systems.
  • Consider investing in cyber threat intelligence and supply-chain risk monitoring services to enhance your organization’s security posture.
  • Evaluate your incident response plan to ensure it is adequate to address potential attacks targeting Grafana and other critical systems.

CVE-2025-41115 represents a significant security risk for organizations using Grafana Enterprise with SCIM provisioning enabled. By promptly applying the provided patches and implementing additional security measures, organizations can effectively mitigate the risk of user impersonation and privilege escalation. Organizations should prioritize vulnerability management and actively monitor their environments for suspicious activity.

To learn more about how PurpleOps can help you protect your organization from cyber threats, including vulnerabilities like CVE-2025-41115, please visit PurpleOps Solutions or contact us for more information.

FAQ

Q: What is CVE-2025-41115?

A: CVE-2025-41115 is a critical security vulnerability in Grafana’s SCIM implementation that could allow for user impersonation and privilege escalation.

Q: What Grafana versions are affected?

A: The affected Grafana Enterprise versions range from 12.0.0 to 12.2.1.

Q: How can I mitigate this vulnerability?

A: The primary mitigation strategy is to immediately update Grafana Enterprise to one of the patched versions. You should also consider disabling SCIM if not used, reviewing SCIM client configurations, and implementing monitoring for suspicious user provisioning activities.

Q: How does PurpleOps help with this vulnerability?

A: PurpleOps offers services such as cyber threat intelligence, breach detection, supply-chain risk monitoring, and penetration testing to help organizations mitigate the risks associated with vulnerabilities like CVE-2025-41115.