CVE-2021-41090

Instance config inline secret exposure

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: December 8, 2021 at 04:15 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 04:07 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorAgent

Using agent by grafana?

Get instant alerts when new vulnerabilities affect agent - before attackers find them.

Real-time alertsTrack your software stackFree plan available
Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.8%

Description

Grafana Agent is a telemetry collector for sending metrics, logs, and trace data to the opinionated Grafana observability stack. Prior to versions 0.20.1 and 0.21.2, inline secrets defined within a metrics instance config are exposed in plaintext over two endpoints: metrics instance configs defined in the base YAML file are exposed at `/-/config` and metrics instance configs defined for the scraping service are exposed at `/agent/api/v1/configs/:key`. Inline secrets will be exposed to anyone being able to reach these endpoints. If HTTPS with client authentication is not configured, these endpoints are accessible to unauthenticated users. Secrets found in these sections are used for delivering metrics to a Prometheus Remote Write system, authenticating against a system for discovering Prometheus targets, and authenticating against a system for collecting metrics. This does not apply for non-inlined secrets, such as `*_file` based secrets. This issue is patched in Grafana Agent versions 0.20.1 and 0.21.2. A few workarounds are available. Users who cannot upgrade should use non-inline secrets where possible. Users may also desire to restrict API access to Grafana Agent with some combination of restricting the network interfaces Grafana Agent listens on through `http_listen_address` in the `server` block, configuring Grafana Agent to use HTTPS with client authentication, and/or using firewall rules to restrict external access to Grafana Agent's API.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

Agent· Grafanagrafana-plugin
95%
v < 0.20.1v < 0.21.20.14.0 ≤ v < 0.20.10.21.0 ≤ v < 0.21.2
Affected range stops below 0.20.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 0.21.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (6)

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
NONE
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-200CWE-312

Get alerted

Stop reading CVE feeds looking for your own stack

Track the products you run and VulnTracker tells you when a new CVE affects them — with what is known about fixing it, and nothing about the rest.

Free plan, no card