Memory Exhaustion in Grafana API Endpoints

Executive Summary

CVE-2026-33382 is a high-severity vulnerability in Grafana where several API endpoints, including some that do not require authentication, fail to limit the size of incoming request bodies before processing them.

An attacker can exploit this by sending very large payloads, which cause excessive memory allocation on the server.

This excessive memory usage can exhaust system memory and lead to a denial of service condition.

Useful 0 Not Useful 0

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves sending very large payloads to certain Grafana API endpoints that do not limit request body size, potentially causing denial of service.

To detect attempts or exploitation on your network or system, you can monitor for unusually large HTTP POST requests targeting Grafana API endpoints, especially unauthenticated ones.

For example, you can use network monitoring tools or command-line utilities to capture and analyze HTTP traffic to Grafana servers.

• Using tcpdump to capture HTTP traffic on port 3000 (default Grafana port): tcpdump -i any -s 0 -w grafana_traffic.pcap port 3000
• Using tshark to filter HTTP POST requests with large content length: tshark -r grafana_traffic.pcap -Y 'http.request.method == "POST" && http.content_length > 1000000'
• Using curl or similar tools to test API endpoints with large payloads to see if the server limits request size or becomes unresponsive.

Additionally, reviewing Grafana server logs for errors or crashes related to memory exhaustion after large requests can help detect exploitation.

Useful 0 Not Useful 0

Impact Analysis

The primary impact of this vulnerability is a denial of service (DoS) attack.

By sending oversized request bodies to vulnerable Grafana API endpoints, an attacker can cause the system to allocate excessive memory, potentially exhausting available memory resources.

This can make the Grafana service unavailable to legitimate users, disrupting monitoring and visualization capabilities.

Useful 0 Not Useful 0

Compliance Impact

The provided information does not specify any direct impact of this vulnerability on compliance with common standards and regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA.

Useful 0 Not Useful 0

Mitigation Strategies

To mitigate this vulnerability, users are advised to upgrade Grafana to fixed versions that address the issue.

• Upgrade to Grafana version 11.6.15 or later
• Upgrade to Grafana version 12.2.9 or later
• Upgrade to Grafana version 12.3.7 or later
• Upgrade to Grafana version 12.4.4 or later
• Upgrade to Grafana version 13.0.2 or later

Useful 0 Not Useful 0