Instance config inline secret exposure in Grafana

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

6.5 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

EPSS

• CVE-2021-41090: 0.76% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 55.35 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact Some inline secrets are exposed in plaintext over the Grafana Agent HTTP server: Inline secrets for metrics instance configs in the base YAML file are exposed at /-/config Inline secrets for integrations are exposed at /-/config Inline secrets for Consul ACL tokens and ETCD basic auth when configured for the scraping service at /-/config. Inline secrets for the Kafka receiver for OpenTelemetry-Collector tracing at /-/config. Inline secrets for metrics instance configs loaded from the scraping service are exposed at /agent/api/v1/configs/{name}. Inline secrets will be exposed to anyone being able to reach these endpoints. Secrets found in these sections are used for: Delivering metrics to a Prometheus Remote Write system Authenticating against a system for discovering Prometheus targets Authenticating against a system for collecting metrics (scrapeconfigs and integrations) Authenticating against a Consul or ETCD for storing configurations to distribute in scraping service mode…

Published by the source

8 Dec 2021, 19:52 UTC

Last modified by the source

1 Feb 2023, 05:06 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 14:54 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-9c4x-5hgq-q3wh

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2021-41090

Advisory: Instance config inline secret exposure in Grafana
IDs: CVE-2021-41090, GHSA-9c4x-5hgq-q3wh
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2021-41090 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 14:54 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: Medium (CVSS 6.5)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: github.com/grafana/agent 0.21.2. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/grafana/agent: affected >= 0.14.0, < 0.21.2; fixed in 0.21.2

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go github.com/grafana/agent: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on github.com/grafana/agent.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-9c4x-5hgq-q3wh (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-9c4x-5hgq-q3wh lists affected ranges: Go github.com/grafana/agent >=0.14.0 <0.21.2)

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