CVE-2025-32030
📋 TL;DR
A denial-of-service vulnerability in Apollo Gateway allows attackers to craft GraphQL queries with deeply nested and reused named fragments that cause exponential resource consumption during query planning. This affects all Apollo Gateway deployments prior to version 2.10.1 that accept user-submitted GraphQL queries. The vulnerability can be exploited to exhaust server resources and cause service disruption.
💻 Affected Systems
- Apollo Gateway
📦 What is this software?
Apollo Gateway by Apollographql
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete denial of service through CPU/memory exhaustion, potentially taking down the GraphQL gateway and affecting all downstream microservices.
Likely Case
Degraded performance and intermittent service disruptions when attackers send crafted queries, impacting legitimate users.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact with proper query complexity limits, rate limiting, and monitoring in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires only the ability to send GraphQL queries, which is typically available to all users. The vulnerability is well-documented in the advisory.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 2.10.1
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/apollographql/federation/security/advisories/GHSA-q2f9-x4p4-7xmh
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Update package.json to specify @apollo/gateway version 2.10.1 or higher. 2. Run npm update @apollo/gateway or yarn upgrade @apollo/gateway. 3. Restart the Apollo Gateway service.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement Query Complexity Limits
allConfigure Apollo Gateway to reject queries exceeding depth or complexity thresholds
// In Apollo Gateway configuration, add validationRules: [depthLimit(10), createComplexityLimitRule(1000)]
Rate Limit GraphQL Queries
allImplement rate limiting at the API gateway or application level to prevent query flooding
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict query depth and complexity limits using GraphQL validation rules
- Deploy a WAF or API gateway with GraphQL-specific protections to filter malicious queries
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check package.json or run npm list @apollo/gateway to see if version is below 2.10.1Check Version:
npm list @apollo/gateway | grep @apollo/gatewayVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm @apollo/gateway version is 2.10.1 or higher using npm list @apollo/gateway📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusually long query planning times
- High CPU/memory usage spikes
- GraphQL queries with deep nesting patterns
Network Indicators:
- Large GraphQL query payloads with repeated fragment patterns
- Sudden increase in query response times
SIEM Query:
source="apollo-gateway" AND ("query planning" AND duration>5000ms) OR (memory_usage>90% AND query_count>100)