Observability & Monitoring

X-WEBAUTH-USER

Zero-Day Shield

SSO + Zero-Day Protection for Grafana

by Grafana Labs

Add Enterprise SSO to Grafana via Auth Proxy and Block Zero-Day Attacks

Overview

Why Grafana Needs an Authenticated Proxy

Grafana is the leading open-source observability platform, used by hundreds of thousands of organizations to visualize metrics, logs, and traces. But Grafana instances often contain highly sensitive operational data — infrastructure topology, performance metrics, security events, and business KPIs. Exposing Grafana with basic authentication or even Grafana's built-in OAuth creates risk: credentials can be phished, and Grafana CVEs can expose your entire monitoring stack. OnePAM adds enterprise-grade SSO to Grafana using its native auth.proxy feature. Users authenticate through your corporate IdP, and OnePAM sets the X-WEBAUTH-USER header that Grafana trusts. Grafana never handles passwords. Every session passes through OnePAM's identity verification, and zero-day exploits in Grafana cannot be reached by unauthenticated users.

HTTP Header Authentication

X-WEBAUTH-USER

Grafana's auth.proxy feature allows authentication via a trusted reverse proxy header. When auth.proxy is enabled, Grafana reads the authenticated username from X-WEBAUTH-USER and auto-creates or maps the user session.

Zero-Day Risk Profile

Grafana Vulnerability Risks

Without an authenticated proxy, these risks are directly exploitable by any network-reachable attacker.

Grafana has had critical path traversal and SSRF vulnerabilities

Dashboard snapshots can leak sensitive infrastructure data

Data source credentials stored in Grafana can be extracted via API

Grafana plugins extend the attack surface with third-party code

The Challenge

Security Challenges with Grafana

These are the risks organizations face when Grafana is not behind an authenticated proxy.

Sensitive Data Exposure

Grafana dashboards often display infrastructure topology, performance data, and security metrics that reveal your attack surface to unauthorized viewers.

Credential Management

Grafana's built-in user management creates another credential silo. Users maintain separate passwords or rely on basic auth, increasing phishing risk.

Plugin Vulnerabilities

Grafana's rich plugin ecosystem introduces third-party code that may contain vulnerabilities, expanding the attack surface.

Data Source Credentials

Grafana stores database and API credentials for data sources. A compromised Grafana instance exposes credentials to Prometheus, InfluxDB, Elasticsearch, and more.

Shared Dashboard Links

Public snapshots and shared links can inadvertently expose sensitive operational data outside your organization.

Limited Access Controls

Grafana's native RBAC is limited in open-source editions. Enforcing team-level dashboard access without enterprise features is challenging.

The OnePAM Solution

How OnePAM Adds SSO + Zero-Day Protection to Grafana

A step-by-step guide to deploying OnePAM's authenticated proxy in front of Grafana.

Deploy OnePAM as Grafana's Proxy

Place OnePAM in front of Grafana, intercepting all web traffic on ports 80/443.

Grafana is configured to listen only on localhost or a private interface. OnePAM becomes the sole entry point, ensuring all requests are authenticated before reaching Grafana.

Configure Your IdP

Connect OnePAM to your SAML 2.0 or OIDC identity provider — Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace, or any compliant provider.

OnePAM handles IdP metadata exchange, assertion validation, and token lifecycle. Users see your standard corporate login page with MFA.

Enable Grafana Auth Proxy

Configure Grafana's auth.proxy setting to trust the X-WEBAUTH-USER header from OnePAM.

In grafana.ini, set auth.proxy.enabled=true and auth.proxy.header_name=X-WEBAUTH-USER. Grafana automatically creates user accounts and maps them to organizations based on the authenticated identity.

Map Roles from IdP Groups

OnePAM passes IdP group memberships as additional headers, enabling automatic Grafana role assignment.

IdP groups map to Grafana organizations and roles (Admin, Editor, Viewer). When users switch teams in your IdP, their Grafana permissions update automatically.

Monitor and Audit

Every Grafana access is logged with IdP context. Enable session recording for compliance-sensitive environments.

OnePAM's audit log captures who accessed which Grafana dashboard, from where, with what authentication method, and for how long. Session recordings provide visual evidence for audits.

Business Impact

Benefits of Securing Grafana with OnePAM

Measurable security and operational outcomes from deploying OnePAM in front of Grafana.

Shield Dashboards from Exploits

Unauthenticated users cannot reach Grafana. CVEs in Grafana or its plugins are unexploitable without first passing OnePAM's identity check.

Zero unauthenticated access

SSO with Zero Config Drift

Unlike Grafana's built-in OAuth, OnePAM's auth proxy approach survives Grafana upgrades without reconfiguration.

Upgrade-proof SSO

Protect Data Source Credentials

By preventing unauthorized Grafana access, OnePAM indirectly protects the database and API credentials stored within Grafana.

Credential theft prevented

Centralized Role Management

Manage Grafana roles from your IdP instead of inside Grafana. Team changes in your directory automatically reflect in Grafana permissions.

IdP-driven RBAC

Unified Audit Trail

Grafana access events appear alongside all your other application access logs in a single, searchable audit trail.

One audit log for all apps

No Grafana Enterprise Required

OnePAM provides enterprise-grade SSO, RBAC, and audit features to Grafana OSS — no need for Grafana Enterprise licensing.

Enterprise SSO for free Grafana

SSO Features

Grafana SSO Capabilities

Every feature needed to provide enterprise-grade SSO and access control for Grafana.

SAML 2.0 & OIDC SSO via Grafana auth.proxy

X-WEBAUTH-USER header injection

IdP group to Grafana organization/role mapping

Auto-provisioning of Grafana users from IdP

Dashboard-level access policies via URL rules

Session recording for compliance audits

IP and geo-restriction for dashboard access

Device trust verification

Idle timeout and session management

API key access control and auditing

Security

Zero-Day Protection Features

Enterprise-grade security controls that shield Grafana from exploitation.

Grafana isolated from direct network access

End-to-end TLS encryption

Request-level identity verification

Protection against Grafana SSRF vulnerabilities

Header injection prevention (only OnePAM can set auth headers)

Automatic session invalidation on IdP sign-out

Real-World Scenarios

Grafana SSO + Security Use Cases

Common scenarios where organizations deploy OnePAM in front of Grafana.

SRE teams accessing production monitoring dashboards with SSO and MFA

Restricting sensitive business metrics dashboards to executive leadership

Providing read-only dashboard access to external stakeholders with session recording

Enforcing geo-restrictions on infrastructure monitoring access for compliance

Securing multi-tenant Grafana deployments with organization-level access controls

Protecting Grafana instances containing security operations center (SOC) data

Frequently Asked Questions

Grafana SSO + Security FAQ

Common questions about deploying OnePAM's authenticated proxy for Grafana.

Does OnePAM work with Grafana OSS or only Grafana Enterprise?

OnePAM works with both Grafana OSS and Grafana Enterprise. The auth.proxy feature is available in all Grafana editions. OnePAM effectively gives Grafana OSS enterprise-grade SSO and audit capabilities.

How does Grafana know which user is authenticated?

OnePAM sets the X-WEBAUTH-USER header on every proxied request. Grafana reads this header via its auth.proxy configuration and creates or maps the user session automatically. No Grafana login page is shown.

Can we assign Grafana roles based on IdP groups?

Yes. OnePAM passes IdP group memberships as additional HTTP headers. Grafana's auth.proxy can be configured to read these headers for automatic organization and role assignment (Admin, Editor, Viewer).

What happens during a Grafana upgrade?

OnePAM's auth proxy approach is independent of Grafana's internal authentication code. Grafana upgrades do not affect the SSO configuration — the auth.proxy setting is simple and stable across versions.

Can API calls bypass SSO?

OnePAM allows you to configure path-based policies. API calls using Grafana API keys or service accounts can be allowed through specific paths while interactive sessions require full SSO authentication.

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