In the world of observability and monitoring, Grafana stands as a powerhouse for visualizing complex data stacks. But on November 19, 2025, Grafana Labs dropped a bombshell: a critical vulnerability in their Enterprise edition that could let attackers impersonate admins or escalate privileges with ease.
A Quick Primer on Grafana and SCIM
For the uninitiated, Grafana is an open-source platform for querying, visualizing, and alerting on metrics from sources like Prometheus, InfluxDB, and more. Its Enterprise version adds bells and whistles like advanced authentication, role-based access control (RBAC), and integration with identity providers via SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management).
SCIM is the secret sauce here—it’s an open standard for automating user provisioning and management across cloud services. Think syncing users from Okta or Azure AD to Grafana without manual headaches. But as with any automation, if it’s not locked down, it becomes a backdoor.
The Vulnerability: CVE-2025-41115 Unpacked
Discovered internally during a security audit on November 4, 2025, this issue lurks in the SCIM provisioning feature of Grafana Enterprise. Here’s the crux: When SCIM is enabled, a malicious or compromised SCIM client can provision a new user with a numeric externalId. Grafana maps this externalId directly to the internal user.uid—a unique identifier for existing users.
Why does this matter? Internal user IDs in Grafana are often numeric (e.g., the admin user might have a UID of 1). By crafting a user with an externalId matching an existing high-privilege UID, the attacker overrides that account. Boom—instant impersonation.
Affected Versions and Conditions
This doesn’t hit everyone—it’s targeted:
• Versions: Grafana Enterprise 12.0.0 through 12.2.1.
• Prerequisites:
• The enableSCIM feature flag must be set to true.
• user_sync_enabled must be true in the [auth.scim] config section.
• A SCIM client (legit or rogue) with provisioning rights.
Open-source Grafana users? You’re safe—this is Enterprise-only. And managed services like Grafana Cloud, Amazon Managed Grafana, and Azure Managed Grafana have already rolled out patches.
How Attackers Exploit It: A Step-by-Step Nightmare
Imagine an attacker with access to your IdP’s SCIM integration (maybe via a phishing win or a supply-chain compromise). Here’s the play:
1. Recon: They enumerate existing users in Grafana—perhaps via API leaks or prior access—to snag high-value UIDs like the admin’s (often 1).
2. Provision Malicious User: Using SCIM POST requests, they create a new user entry with externalId: "1" (or whatever the target UID is). Grafana treats this as a sync, mapping it straight to the internal UID.
3. Escalation: The new “user” now inherits the privileges of the overridden account. They log in, access dashboards, tweak alerts, or even nuke configs—all as an admin.
4. Cover Tracks: Delete the original user or pivot to lateral movement in your observability stack.
In multi-tenant setups, this is devastating: One compromised tenant could masquerade as another, exposing sensitive metrics from finance to engineering.
The National Vulnerability Database (NVD) confirms the impersonation vector, noting it overrides internal IDs without proper validation.
The Stakes: Why This is a Wake-Up Call
A CVSS 10.0 isn’t hype—it’s a red flag for immediate action. Impacts include:
• Data Exposure: Unauthorized access to dashboards with proprietary metrics, logs, or traces.
• Operational Sabotage: Altering alerts or silencing incidents during an attack.
• Lateral Movement: Pivoting to connected systems via Grafana’s integrations.
In regulated industries like finance or healthcare, this could trigger compliance nightmares (think GDPR or HIPAA violations). And with SCIM’s growing adoption for zero-trust identity, flaws like this erode trust in automated provisioning.
Mitigation: Patch Now, Harden Later
Grafana Labs moved fast—patches dropped the same week:
• Upgrade to Grafana Enterprise 12.3.0 (latest stable).
• Or backport security fixes: 12.0.6+security-01, 12.1.3+security-01, or 12.2.1+security-01.
No upgrade path? Disable SCIM temporarily: Set enableSCIM = false in your config and restart. Monitor your IdP logs for suspicious provisioning attempts.
Beyond the patch:
• Principle of Least Privilege: Limit SCIM clients to read-only where possible.
• Audit Logs: Enable Grafana’s audit logging to track user changes.
• IdP Hardening: Use short-lived tokens and multi-factor for SCIM endpoints.
• Vulnerability Scanning: Integrate tools like Trivy or Snyk into your CI/CD for early detection.
Grafana Cloud users: You’re covered automatically. For self-hosted, head to the security advisory for full details.
Final Thoughts: Security Isn’t Set-It-and-Forget-It
CVE-2025-41115 is a stark reminder that even battle-tested tools like Grafana aren’t immune to clever edge cases. As observability platforms become central to DevOps, so do their attack surfaces. Stay vigilant: Subscribe to vendor advisories, run regular pentests, and treat identity integrations like the crown jewels they are.
If you’re dealing with this in your stack, drop a comment below—what’s your go-to for SCIM security? And always—patch first, ask questions later.
Stay secure out there.