CVE-2026-58257 in GRR
Summary
by MITRE • 10/28/2026
GRR is a resource management and reservation application. Prior to the advisory-reported fixed version 4.5.0, the database restoration feature fails to enforce or validate file paths. A user with administrator privileges can manipulate the input to read or delete arbitrary files on the server, causing sensitive file disclosure and denial of service through file deletion. The impact is amplified when the server runs with elevated privileges. The advisory reports this issue as fixed in version 4.5.0.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/28/2026
GRR Rapid Response is a widely deployed incident response framework that provides resource management, remote forensics capabilities, and automated data collection across distributed environments. Within its architecture, the database restoration feature serves as a critical administrative function designed to recover system state from backups or migrate configurations between instances. This functionality inherently requires high-level privileges because it interacts directly with the underlying file system and database engine to overwrite existing structures. The vulnerability identified in versions prior to 4.5.0 stems from an insufficient validation of user-supplied input within this restoration mechanism, specifically regarding how file paths are processed during the backup extraction or import process.
The core technical flaw is a path traversal vulnerability resulting from the application's failure to enforce strict constraints on file paths provided by administrators. When an administrator initiates a database restore operation, the backend processes the specified archive and extracts its contents without adequately sanitizing directory separators or relative path components such as dot-dot-slash sequences. This lack of validation allows a malicious actor with administrative access to craft a specially constructed backup archive containing files with absolute paths pointing outside the intended restoration directory. By manipulating these inputs, an attacker can cause the application to write data to arbitrary locations on the server's file system or overwrite critical system and application files.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe due to the privilege level required to exploit it. Since exploitation requires administrator privileges, a compromised admin account or an insider threat actor with elevated access can leverage this flaw for significant malicious outcomes. The primary consequences include sensitive information disclosure through unauthorized file reads if the restoration logic allows reading arbitrary files during validation phases, and denial of service via deliberate deletion or corruption of critical system binaries, configuration files, or database structures. If the GRR server is executed with elevated operating system privileges, such as root on Linux systems, the impact extends beyond application-level disruption to potential full system compromise, allowing further lateral movement within the network infrastructure managed by GRR.
This vulnerability aligns with Common Weakness Enumeration CWE-22, which describes Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory, commonly known as path traversal. From an offensive security perspective, this behavior is consistent with ATT&CK technique T1564.008, Host File System Discovery, and potentially T1489 Service Stop or Disable, depending on whether the attacker targets running services for denial of service. The amplification of impact when running with elevated privileges highlights the importance of principle of least privilege in deployment configurations, although it does not mitigate the vulnerability itself since administrative access is already present.
Mitigation strategies focus primarily on upgrading to version 4.5.0 or later where this issue has been resolved through improved input validation and path canonicalization checks that prevent traversal outside designated directories. In environments where immediate patching is not feasible, administrators should restrict database restoration capabilities to a minimal set of trusted users and ensure the GRR service runs with the lowest possible operating system privileges necessary for operation. Additionally, implementing strict file integrity monitoring on critical server paths can help detect unauthorized modifications resulting from exploitation attempts before they cause significant damage.