CVE-2025-6197: Grafana OSS Open Redirect Vulnerability

CVE-2025-6197 Overview

An open redirect vulnerability has been identified in Grafana OSS organization switching functionality. This security flaw allows attackers to craft malicious URLs that redirect authenticated users to arbitrary external websites when switching between organizations within a Grafana instance.

The vulnerability requires specific conditions for successful exploitation: the Grafana instance must have multiple organizations configured, and the victim must be logged into a different organization than the one specified in the attacker-controlled URL.

Critical Impact

Attackers can leverage this open redirect vulnerability to conduct phishing attacks, steal user credentials, or redirect users to malicious content by abusing the trust users place in legitimate Grafana URLs.

Affected Products

• Grafana OSS (specific affected versions detailed in vendor advisory)
• Grafana Enterprise (specific affected versions detailed in vendor advisory)
• Self-hosted Grafana instances with multiple organizations enabled

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-07-17 - Grafana releases security patches and publishes advisory
• 2025-07-18 - CVE-2025-6197 published to NVD
• 2025-07-22 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-6197

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as CWE-601: URL Redirection to Untrusted Site ('Open Redirect'). The flaw exists within Grafana's organization switching mechanism, which fails to properly validate the destination URL parameter before performing the redirect operation.

When a user switches between organizations in a multi-tenant Grafana deployment, the application processes a redirect URL to navigate the user to the appropriate context. The vulnerability allows an attacker to inject an arbitrary external URL into this parameter, causing the application to redirect the user to a malicious site after the organization switch is initiated.

The attack requires user interaction - specifically, the victim must click on a crafted link while authenticated to a Grafana instance with multiple organizations. The network-based attack vector combined with the requirement for user interaction results in a medium severity classification.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is insufficient validation of the redirect URL parameter in the organization switching functionality. The application does not adequately verify that the destination URL points to a trusted internal resource before executing the redirect, allowing external URLs to be specified by an attacker.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based and requires the following conditions:

1. The attacker crafts a malicious URL pointing to the target Grafana instance's organization switch endpoint
2. The URL contains a redirect parameter pointing to an attacker-controlled external site
3. The victim, who is authenticated to the Grafana instance and belongs to multiple organizations, clicks the malicious link
4. Grafana processes the organization switch and redirects the user to the malicious external site

This attack can be delivered through phishing emails, malicious websites, or compromised legitimate pages that link to the crafted Grafana URL.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-6197

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual URL patterns in web server logs containing organization switch endpoints with external redirect parameters
• User reports of being redirected to unexpected external sites after clicking Grafana links
• Authentication attempts or credential harvesting following redirects from Grafana URLs
• Suspicious referrer headers in phishing site logs originating from Grafana domains

Detection Strategies

• Monitor web application firewall (WAF) logs for requests to organization switching endpoints containing external URL parameters
• Implement URL pattern analysis to detect redirect parameters pointing to non-whitelisted domains
• Configure SIEM rules to alert on unusual redirect chains originating from Grafana endpoints
• Review access logs for organization switch requests with suspicious query string patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed request logging on Grafana instances to capture full URL parameters
• Implement browser-based security controls that warn users about external redirects
• Deploy network monitoring to detect outbound connections to known malicious domains following Grafana access
• Configure alerting for high volumes of organization switch requests which may indicate automated exploitation attempts

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-6197

Immediate Actions Required

• Update Grafana to the latest patched version as specified in the Grafana Security Advisory
• Review the Grafana Security Release Blog for detailed patch information
• Audit Grafana instance configurations to identify deployments with multiple organizations enabled
• Implement network-level controls to restrict outbound redirects from Grafana servers pending patch deployment

Patch Information

Grafana has released security patches addressing this vulnerability. Administrators should consult the official Grafana CVE-2025-6197 Advisory for specific version information and upgrade instructions. The security release addresses both CVE-2025-6197 and CVE-2025-6023.

Organizations running self-hosted Grafana instances should prioritize applying the security update, particularly if multiple organizations are configured within the deployment.

Workarounds

• Implement a web application firewall (WAF) rule to block or sanitize redirect parameters containing external URLs in organization switch requests
• Restrict access to Grafana instances to trusted networks until patches can be applied
• Educate users about the risk of clicking untrusted links, even those appearing to point to legitimate Grafana instances
• Consider temporarily disabling multi-organization functionality if not business-critical while awaiting patch deployment

# Example WAF rule concept for blocking external redirects (adapt to your WAF platform)
# Block requests to org switch endpoints with external redirect parameters
# SecRule REQUEST_URI "@contains /api/user/using/" "chain,id:1001,deny,status:403"
# SecRule ARGS:redirect "@rx ^https?:\/\/(?!your-grafana-domain\.com)" "t:none"