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Grafana Token

Grafana tokens are authentication credentials used to access the Grafana service, a popular open-source platform for monitoring and observability. These tokens allow users to interact with Grafana's API, enabling automated data retrieval, dashboard management, and other administrative tasks. Exposure of a Grafana token can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive monitoring data and potential manipulation of dashboards, posing a significant security risk.

How Does It Look​

Grafana tokens can appear in various contexts, such as:

  • Environment variables:

    export GRAFANA_TOKEN="eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9..."

  • Configuration files (JSON, YAML, .env):

    {
      "grafana": {
        "token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9..."
      }
    }

  • Code snippets:

    headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9..."}

  • Connection strings:

    https://api.grafana.com?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9...

Severity​

  • 🟠 High

Grafana tokens typically provide access to the Grafana API, allowing for actions such as reading and modifying dashboards, accessing sensitive monitoring data, and potentially altering alert configurations. The severity is high due to the potential for unauthorized data access and manipulation, which can disrupt monitoring operations and lead to data breaches.

What Can an Attacker Do?​

With immediate access to a Grafana token, an attacker can interact with the Grafana API, potentially compromising the integrity and confidentiality of monitoring data.

Key actions an attacker can perform:

  • Read sensitive data: Access monitoring dashboards and data (if the token has read permissions)
  • Modify dashboards: Alter or delete dashboards and panels (if the token has write permissions)
  • Change alert configurations: Modify alert rules and notifications (if alert management is permitted)
  • Access user information: Retrieve user details and roles (if the token has admin privileges)

An attacker could escalate their access by exploiting other vulnerabilities within the Grafana environment or using the information obtained to move laterally within the network.

Real-World Impact​

Exposure of a Grafana token poses significant business risks, primarily through unauthorized access to monitoring data and potential operational disruptions.

Potential consequences include:

  • Data Exposure: Unauthorized access to sensitive monitoring data (if the token has read access to dashboards)
  • Financial Loss: Costs associated with incident response and potential downtime (if critical alerts are modified or disabled)
  • Operational Disruption: Interruption of monitoring and alerting services (if dashboards or alerts are altered)
  • Reputational Damage: Loss of trust from stakeholders due to data breaches or service disruptions

In worst-case scenarios, attackers could use the compromised token to disable critical alerts, leading to undetected issues and cascading operational failures.

Prerequisites for Exploitation​

To exploit a Grafana token, an attacker needs:

  • Network access: Ability to reach the Grafana API endpoint
  • Additional context: Knowledge of the Grafana instance URL and relevant API endpoints
  • No rate limits: Exploitation is easier if there are no strict rate limits or IP restrictions in place

How to Verify If It's Active​

To verify if a Grafana token is active, use the following command:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer [TOKEN]" https://grafana.example.com/api/org

Valid credential response: A successful response will return organization details in JSON format.

Invalid/expired credential response: An error message indicating unauthorized access or token expiration.

Detection Patterns​

Common Variable Names:

  • GRAFANA_TOKEN
  • GRAFANA_API_KEY
  • GRAFANA_AUTH_TOKEN
  • GRAFANA_BEARER_TOKEN
  • GRAFANA_SECRET
  • GRAFANA_ACCESS_TOKEN

File Locations:

  • config.json
  • settings.yaml
  • .env
  • grafana.ini
  • credentials.json

Regex Pattern:

grafana[_-]?(token|key|auth|bearer|secret|access)[\"']?\s*[:=]\s*[\"']?[A-Za-z0-9\-_]{20,}[\"']?

Remediation Steps​

  1. Revoke immediately - Go to Grafana > Configuration > API Keys and delete the compromised token.
  2. Audit access logs - Review Grafana server logs for unauthorized API calls or dashboard modifications during the exposure window.
  3. Assess blast radius - Identify all systems, applications, and environments that used the exposed token.
  4. Rotate credential - Generate a new API token in Grafana with least-privilege permissions.
  5. Update dependent systems - Deploy the new token to all applications and update CI/CD pipelines securely.
  6. Harden access controls - Enable IP allowlisting in Grafana and enforce strong authentication mechanisms.
  7. Implement secrets management - Migrate tokens to a secrets manager (HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager) to prevent hardcoding.
  8. Add detection controls - Set up pre-commit hooks and repository scanning to catch token leaks before they reach production.

Credential exposures often go undetected for extended periods, increasing the window for exploitation. As a long-term strategy, plan to establish an internal process or engage an external vendor for continuous external exposure monitoring. This helps identify leaked secrets across public repositories, paste sites, dark web forums, and other external sources before attackers can leverage them. Proactive detection and rapid response are essential to minimizing the impact of credential leaks.

References​