My First Grafana Admin Bug Bounty — with Google Dork — $xxx

Today, I will share an Information Disclosure vulnerability that I reported. It involved a Grafana login with default credentials, which I brought to the attention of a security team as part of their bug bounty program at Hackerone. I discovered this Grafana login through a useful Google Dork of mine.
What is Google Dorks?
Google Dorks are advanced search operators and techniques used to extract specific data from Google’s vast index. In the realm of cybersecurity, Google Dorks are typically used to locate misconfigurations and exposed information that shouldn’t be public. You can find my Google Dorks here: https://github.com/Proviesec/google-dorks If you want to learn more about Google Dorks: https://readmedium.com/google-dork-the-best-one-and-how-do-you-find-bugs-with-it-689c69804b81
What is Grafana?
Grafana is an open-source platform for monitoring and observability. It allows users to visualize, explore, and correlate data from various data sources such as databases, web services, and third-party tools. With Grafana, you can create dynamic and informative dashboards, set up alerts to notify you about any critical events or anomalies, and gain insights into your system’s performance and behavior over time. It is a highly customizable tool widely used in many fields including IT operations, DevOps, and IoT for real-time monitoring of large-scale data environments.
Steps to Reproduce the Vulnerability / Report

After using the Google Dork to find instances of Grafana, I noticed that one of the instances had a login page. Here are the steps I took to exploit the vulnerability:

- Step 1.: I went to Google and entered various Google Dorks from my Github repository.
- Step 2.: I used the dork intitle:”Welcome to Grafana” and found a Grafana login page.
intitle:"Welcome to Grafana"- Step 3.: I quickly reviewed the Grafana documentation and learned that the default username and password are both ‘admin.’

- Step 4.: I entered these default credentials into the login page and gained access to the Grafana instance.
- Step 5.: Unable to reproduce any of the known Grafana vulnerabilities listed on https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-18548/product_id-47055/Grafana-Grafana.html, I decided to report the weak ‘admin’ login. Despite its seemingly minor nature, the security team awarded me a three-figure sum for the bug bounty.
Impact of the Vulnerability
The security implications of this issue are significant. Grafana is often used to monitor crucial systems. If an attacker were to gain access, they would be able to monitor the system’s performance, track user activity, and potentially manipulate the data. Unsecured Grafana instances could potentially lead to significant data breaches.
My Learnings and Summary
This experience serves as a reminder that even minor vulnerabilities can have significant impacts and should not be overlooked. Always ensure to secure your systems correctly and regularly check for vulnerabilities. And for fellow bug bounty hunters, don’t underestimate the power of tools like Google Dorks in finding potentially impactful vulnerabilities.
In summary, I consider this a successful venture into bug bounty hunting with Grafana and look forward to hunting for more in the future. I hope my experience encourages others to delve into bug bounty hunting, thus contributing to the safety of our digital environment. Remember, always report your findings to the appropriate parties and never exploit vulnerabilities for personal gain. Happy hunting!
To ensure your online security while using Google Dorks, I heartily recommend NordVPN. Please use this affiliate link: https://go.nordvpn.net/aff_c?offer_id=15&aff_id=90078. It doesn’t cost you anything extra but it supports my work.
Here’s my Hackerone profile: https://hackerone.com/proviesec Here’s my Twitter: https://twitter.com/proviesec Here’s my Github: https://github.com/Proviesec
Please feel free to ask me and suggest changes I should consider next time. Thanks for reading 👋.
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