GraphQL vulnerabilities

Parse Server is an open source backend that can be deployed to any infrastructure that can run Node.js. Prior to versions 8.6.68 and 9.7.0-alpha.12, the GraphQL query complexity validator can be exploited to cause a denial-of-service by sending a crafted query with binary fan-out fragment spreads. A single unauthenticated request can block the Node.js event loop for seconds, denying service to all concurrent users. This only affects deployments that have enabled the requestComplexity.graphQLDepth or requestComplexity.graphQLFields configuration options. This issue has been patched in versions 8.6.68 and 9.7.0-alpha.12.

Parse Server is an open source backend that can be deployed to any infrastructure that can run Node.js. Prior to 8.6.40 and 9.6.0-alpha.14, the GraphQL WebSocket endpoint for subscriptions does not pass requests through the Express middleware chain that enforces authentication, introspection control, and query complexity limits. An attacker can connect to the WebSocket endpoint and execute GraphQL operations without providing a valid application or API key, access the GraphQL schema via introspection even when public introspection is disabled, and send arbitrarily complex queries that bypass configured complexity limits. This vulnerability is fixed in 8.6.40 and 9.6.0-alpha.14.

Mercurius is a GraphQL adapter for Fastify. Prior to version 16.8.0, Mercurius fails to enforce the configured queryDepth limit on GraphQL subscription queries received over WebSocket connections. The depth check is correctly applied to HTTP queries and mutations, but subscription queries are parsed and executed without invoking the depth validation. This allows a remote client to submit arbitrarily deeply nested subscription queries over WebSocket, bypassing the intended depth restriction. On schemas with recursive types, this can lead to denial of service through exponential data resolution on each subscription event. This issue has been patched in version 16.8.0.

Craft is a content management system (CMS). In versions 4.5.0-RC1 through 4.16.18 and 5.0.0-RC1 through 5.8.22, a Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) race condition exists in Craft CMS’s token validation service for tokens that explicitly set a limited usage. The `getTokenRoute()` method reads a token’s usage count, checks if it’s within limits, then updates the database in separate non-atomic operations. By sending concurrent requests, an attacker can use a single-use impersonation token multiple times before the database update completes. To make this work, an attacker needs to obtain a valid user account impersonation URL with a non-expired token via some other means and exploit a race condition while bypassing any rate-limiting rules in place. For this to be a privilege escalation, the impersonation URL must include a token for a user account with more permissions than the current user. Versions 4.16.19 and 5.8.23 patch the issue.

GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab EE affecting all versions from 15.6 before 18.6.6, 18.7 before 18.7.4, and 18.8 before 18.8.4 that could have allowed an authenticated user to cause Denial of Service by uploading a malicious file and repeatedly querying it through GraphQl.

GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 18.6 before 18.6.6, 18.7 before 18.7.4, and 18.8 before 18.8.4 that, under certain conditions could have allowed an authenticated user to perform unauthorized operations by submitting GraphQL mutations through the GLQL API endpoint.

Apollo Server is an open-source, spec-compliant GraphQL server that's compatible with any GraphQL client, including Apollo Client. In versions from 2.0.0 to 3.13.0, 4.2.0 to before 4.13.0, and 5.0.0 to before 5.4.0, the default configuration of startStandaloneServer from @apollo/server/standalone is vulnerable to denial of service (DoS) attacks through specially crafted request bodies with exotic character set encodings. This issue does not affect users that use @apollo/server as a dependency for integration packages, like @as-integrations/express5 or @as-integrations/next, only direct usage of startStandaloneServer.

Hasura GraphQL 1.3.3 contains a remote code execution vulnerability that allows attackers to execute arbitrary shell commands through SQL query manipulation. Attackers can inject commands into the run_sql endpoint by crafting malicious GraphQL queries that execute system commands through PostgreSQL's COPY FROM PROGRAM functionality.

GraphQL Modules is a toolset of libraries and guidelines dedicated to create reusable, maintainable, testable and extendable modules out of your GraphQL server. From 2.2.1 to before 2.4.1 and 3.1.1, when 2 or more parallel requests are made which trigger the same service, the context of the requests is mixed up in the service when the context is injected via @ExecutionContext(). ExecutionContext is often used to pass authentication tokens from incoming requests to services loading data from backend APIs. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.4.1 and 3.1.1.

A pre-authentication denial of service vulnerability exists in React Server Components versions 19.0.0, 19.0.1 19.1.0, 19.1.1, 19.1.2, 19.2.0 and 19.2.1, including the following packages: react-server-dom-parcel, react-server-dom-turbopack, and react-server-dom-webpack. The vulnerable code unsafely deserializes payloads from HTTP requests to Server Function endpoints, which can cause an infinite loop that hangs the server process and may prevent future HTTP requests from being served.

GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab EE affecting all versions from 18.3 to 18.3.4, 18.4 to 18.4.2 that, under certain conditions, could have allowed authenticated users with read-only API tokens to perform unauthorized write operations on vulnerability records by exploiting incorrectly scoped GraphQL mutations.

GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 13.12 to 18.2.8, 18.3 to 18.3.4, and 18.4 to 18.4.2 that could make the GitLab instance unresponsive or severely degraded by sending crafted GraphQL queries requesting large repository blobs.

Denial of Service issue in GraphQL endpoints in Gitlab EE/CE affecting all versions from 11.10 prior to 18.2.7, 18.3 prior to 18.3.3, and 18.4 prior to 18.4.1 allows unauthenticated users to potentially bypass query complexity limits leading to resource exhaustion and service disruption.

The cleanIptables mutation in Chaos Controller Manager is vulnerable to OS command injection. In conjunction with CVE-2025-59358, this allows unauthenticated in-cluster attackers to perform remote code execution across the cluster.

The killProcesses mutation in Chaos Controller Manager is vulnerable to OS command injection. In conjunction with CVE-2025-59358, this allows unauthenticated in-cluster attackers to perform remote code execution across the cluster.

The cleanTcs mutation in Chaos Controller Manager is vulnerable to OS command injection. In conjunction with CVE-2025-59358, this allows unauthenticated in-cluster attackers to perform remote code execution across the cluster.

Insufficient input validation within GitLab Language Server 7.6.0 and later before 7.30.0 allows arbitrary GraphQL query execution

apollo-compiler is a query-based compiler for the GraphQL query language. Prior to 1.27.0, a vulnerability in Apollo Compiler allowed queries with deeply nested and reused named fragments to be prohibitively expensive to validate. Named fragments were being processed once per fragment spread in some cases during query validation, leading to exponential resource usage when deeply nested and reused fragments were involved. This could lead to excessive resource consumption and denial of service in applications. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.27.0.

API Platform Core is a system to create hypermedia-driven REST and GraphQL APIs. Using the Relay special node type you can bypass the configured security on an operation. This vulnerability is fixed in 4.0.22 and 3.4.17.

API Platform Core is a system to create hypermedia-driven REST and GraphQL APIs. From 3.2.0 until 3.2.4, exception messages, that are not HTTP exceptions, are visible in the JSON error response. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.2.5.

In mlflow/mlflow version 2.17.2, the `/graphql` endpoint is vulnerable to a denial of service attack. An attacker can create large batches of queries that repeatedly request all runs from a given experiment. This can tie up all the workers allocated by MLFlow, rendering the application unable to respond to other requests. This vulnerability is due to uncontrolled resource consumption.

graphql-ruby is a Ruby implementation of GraphQL. Starting in version 1.11.5 and prior to versions 1.11.8, 1.12.25, 1.13.24, 2.0.32, 2.1.14, 2.2.17, and 2.3.21, loading a malicious schema definition in `GraphQL::Schema.from_introspection` (or `GraphQL::Schema::Loader.load`) can result in remote code execution. Any system which loads a schema by JSON from an untrusted source is vulnerable, including those that use GraphQL::Client to load external schemas via GraphQL introspection. Versions 1.11.8, 1.12.25, 1.13.24, 2.0.32, 2.1.14, 2.2.17, and 2.3.21 contain a patch for the issue.

GraphQL Mesh is a GraphQL Federation framework and gateway for both GraphQL Federation and non-GraphQL Federation subgraphs, non-GraphQL services, such as REST and gRPC, and also databases such as MongoDB, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. Missing check vulnerability in the static file handler allows any client to access the files in the server's file system. When `staticFiles` is set in the `serve` settings in the configuration file, the following handler doesn't check if `absolutePath` is still under the directory provided as `staticFiles`. Users have two options to fix vulnerability; 1. Update `@graphql-mesh/cli` to a version higher than `0.82.21`, and if you use `@graphql-mesh/http`, update it to a version higher than `0.3.18` 2. Remove `staticFiles` option from the configuration, and use other solutions to serve static files.

A vulnerability was found in GraphQL due to improper access controls on the GraphQL introspection query. This flaw allows unauthorized users to retrieve a comprehensive list of available queries and mutations. Exposure to this flaw increases the attack surface, as it can facilitate the discovery of flaws or errors specific to the application's GraphQL implementation.

GraphQL Java (aka graphql-java) before 21.5 does not properly consider ExecutableNormalizedFields (ENFs) as part of preventing denial of service via introspection queries. 20.9 and 19.11 are also fixed versions.

Directus is a real-time API and App dashboard for managing SQL database content. A denial of service (DoS) attack by field duplication in GraphQL is a type of attack where an attacker exploits the flexibility of GraphQL to overwhelm a server by requesting the same field multiple times in a single query. This can cause the server to perform redundant computations and consume excessive resources, leading to a denial of service for legitimate users. Request to the endpoint /graphql are sent when visualizing graphs generated at a dashboard. By modifying the data sent and duplicating many times the fields a DoS attack is possible. This vulnerability is fixed in 10.12.0.

SuiteCRM is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software application. Prior to version 8.4.2, Graphql Introspection is enabled without authentication, exposing the scheme defining all object types, arguments, and functions. An attacker can obtain the GraphQL schema and understand the entire attack surface of the API, including sensitive fields such as UserHash. This issue is patched in version 8.4.2. There are no known workarounds.

silverstripe-graphql is a package which serves Silverstripe data in GraphQL representations. An attacker could use a recursive graphql query to execute a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDOS attack) against a website. This mostly affects websites with publicly exposed graphql schemas. If your Silverstripe CMS project does not expose a public facing graphql schema, a user account is required to trigger the DDOS attack. If your site is hosted behind a content delivery network (CDN), such as Imperva or CloudFlare, this may further mitigate the risk. This issue has been addressed in versions 3.8.2, 4.1.3, 4.2.5, 4.3.4, and 5.0.3. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

A batch loader function in Spring for GraphQL versions 1.1.0 - 1.1.5 and 1.2.0 - 1.2.2 may be exposed to GraphQL context with values, including security context values, from a different session. An application is vulnerable if it provides a DataLoaderOptions instance when registering batch loader functions through DefaultBatchLoaderRegistry.

Versions of the package graphql from 16.3.0 and before 16.8.1 are vulnerable to Denial of Service (DoS) due to insufficient checks in the OverlappingFieldsCanBeMergedRule.ts file when parsing large queries. This vulnerability allows an attacker to degrade system performance. **Note:** It was not proven that this vulnerability can crash the process.

Directus is a real-time API and App dashboard for managing SQL database content. Starting in version 10.3.0 and prior to version 10.5.0, the permission filters (i.e. `user_created IS $CURRENT_USER`) are not properly checked when using GraphQL subscription resulting in unauthorized users getting event on their subscription which they should not be receiving according to the permissions. This can be any collection but out-of-the box the `directus_users` collection is configured with such a permissions filter allowing you to get updates for other users when changes happen. Version 10.5.0 contains a patch. As a workaround, disable GraphQL subscriptions.

In GraphQL Java (aka graphql-java) before 20.1, an attacker can send a crafted GraphQL query that causes stack consumption. The fixed versions are 20.1, 19.4, 18.4, 17.5, and 0.0.0-2023-03-20T01-49-44-80e3135.

graphql-java before19.0 is vulnerable to Denial of Service. An attacker can send a malicious GraphQL query that consumes CPU resources. The fixed versions are 19.0 and later, 18.3, and 17.4, and 0.0.0-2022-07-26T05-45-04-226aabd9.

graphql-go is a GraphQL server with a focus on ease of use. In versions prior to 1.3.0 there exists a DoS vulnerability that is possible due to a bug in the library that would allow an attacker with specifically designed queries to cause stack overflow panics. Any user with access to the GraphQL handler can send these queries and cause stack overflows. This in turn could potentially compromise the ability of the server to serve data to its users. The issue has been patched in version `v1.3.0`. The only known workaround for this issue is to disable the `graphql.MaxDepth` option from your schema which is not recommended.

GraphiQL is the reference implementation of this monorepo, GraphQL IDE, an official project under the GraphQL Foundation. All versions of graphiql older than graphiql@1.4.7 are vulnerable to compromised HTTP schema introspection responses or schema prop values with malicious GraphQL type names, exposing a dynamic XSS attack surface that can allow code injection on operation autocomplete. In order for the attack to take place, the user must load a vulnerable schema in graphiql. There are a number of ways that can occur. By default, the schema URL is not attacker-controllable in graphiql or in its suggested implementations or examples, leaving only very complex attack vectors. If a custom implementation of graphiql's fetcher allows the schema URL to be set dynamically, such as a URL query parameter like ?endpoint= in graphql-playground, or a database provided value, then this custom graphiql implementation is vulnerable to phishing attacks, and thus much more readily available, low or no privelege level xss attacks. The URLs could look like any generic looking graphql schema URL. It should be noted that desktop clients such as Altair, Insomnia, Postwoman, do not appear to be impacted by this. This vulnerability does not impact codemirror-graphql, monaco-graphql or other dependents, as it exists in onHasCompletion.ts in graphiql. It does impact all forks of graphiql, and every released version of graphiql.

GraphQL Playground is a GraphQL IDE for development of graphQL focused applications. All versions of graphql-playground-react older than graphql-playground-react@1.7.28 are vulnerable to compromised HTTP schema introspection responses or schema prop values with malicious GraphQL type names, exposing a dynamic XSS attack surface that can allow code injection on operation autocomplete. In order for the attack to take place, the user must load a malicious schema in graphql-playground. There are several ways this can occur, including by specifying the URL to a malicious schema in the endpoint query parameter. If a user clicks on a link to a GraphQL Playground installation that specifies a malicious server, arbitrary JavaScript can run in the user's browser, which can be used to exfiltrate user credentials or other harmful goals. If you are using graphql-playground-react directly in your client app, upgrade to version 1.7.28 or later.

In parser-server from version 3.5.0 and before 4.3.0, an authenticated user using the viewer GraphQL query can by pass all read security on his User object and can also by pass all objects linked via relation or Pointer on his User object.