Read 2026-11-07
dgraph-io/dgraph: technical due diligence, read from its repository
What Borehole read in dgraph-io/dgraph's code and history at 1714bf3: its licence, security advisories, releases, review practice, tests, dependencies and operations. Every finding cites the file and line it rests on. The full report also covers the team and asks the questions the code cannot answer.
| Dimension | Rating |
|---|---|
| Architecture & Codebase — including AI provenance | strong |
| Engineering Process & SDLC Maturity | strong |
| Product & Engineering Maturity | strong |
| Security & Reliability Posture | adequate |
| Observability & Operations | adequate |
| Fit with the Acquirer | not assessable |
What the repository says
LICENSE: Relicensed: Apache-2.0 → Apache-2.0 with the Commons Clause and an attribution term (2018-04-03) → Apache-2.0 (2025-04-07)
Architecture & Codebase — including AI provenance
strongsystest/1million/common/tc.go is 9,241 lines, 48× this codebase's median file
adequateThe median source file here is 191 lines. 12 files exceed 1,910 lines, the largest being 9,241. Size is not a defect on its own — some problems genuinely live in one place — but these are where merge conflicts, review fatigue and single-owner knowledge concentrate, and they are the first thing that slows an inheriting engineer down.
systest/1million/common/tc.go:1 — 9,241 lines (48× median) |
dql/parser.go:1 — 3,565 lines (18× median) |
graphql/schema/wrappers.go:1 — 3,215 lines (16× median) |
query/query.go:1 — 3,158 lines (16× median) |
graphql/schema/gqlschema.go:1 — 2,974 lines (15× median) |
Engineering Process & SDLC Maturity
strongNo finding.
Product & Engineering Maturity
strongNo finding.
Security & Reliability Posture
adequate7 credential-shaped strings in the tree sit in tests, examples, documentation or local development settings
adequateStrings shaped like credentials appear only where fakes are usual: test fixtures, examples, documentation, placeholders and local stacks. They are almost always fakes. Ask someone to confirm that none of them works anywhere, because a real key in a development file is still a real key. 2 other matchs set aside: expired tokens, licence tokens a vendor verifies with a public key, or placeholder text where a key would go. None grants access to anything.
| 5 cited: JWT, where fakes are usual |
3 Dockerfiles run the application as root
adequateNo USER instruction switches away from root, so the process runs with full privileges inside the container. It is a one-line fix and an ordinary expectation, which is why its absence is worth asking about: it usually says more about whether anyone has reviewed the deployment than about this container specifically.
Dockerfile — runs as root |
contrib/Dockerfile — runs as root |
contrib/standalone/Dockerfile — runs as root |
The build runs third-party code it does not pin
adequate9 third-party CI actions are referenced by a tag or branch rather than a commit, so they run whatever that tag points to on the day. Tags have been moved to malicious commits in real supply-chain attacks, and a piped script is whatever the server returns that minute. Pinning to a commit is the fix, and it is small.
.github/workflows/cd-dgraph-nightly.yml:17 — action pinned by tag |
.github/workflows/cd-dgraph-nightly.yml:20 — action pinned by tag |
11 outbound calls can wait forever
adequate11 HTTP calls use a client with no timeout (Python `requests` without `timeout=`, or Go's default client). When a dependency slows down, each one holds a worker until the connection gives up, and enough of them take the service down with the dependency.
contrib/jepsen/main.go:210 — outbound call without a timeout |
dgraph/cmd/zero/zero.go:136 — outbound call without a timeout |
dgraphapi/cluster.go:665 — outbound call without a timeout |
3 shell commands built from strings
adequate3 places run a command through a shell (`shell=True`, `os.system`, `exec` with a template) rather than passing arguments. Where any part comes from outside, it is command injection. Ask where each one's input comes from.
systest/bulk_live/common/bulk_live_cases.go:810 — command run through a shell |
systest/bulk_live/common/bulk_live_cases.go:824 — command run through a shell |
x/metrics.go:786 — command run through a shell |
2 locked dependencies have published vulnerabilities, 2 high or critical in what ships
adequate2 of 162 locked dependencies match 5 published advisories in OSV, 2 of them rated high or critical. A lockfile says which version is installed, not whether the flawed code is reachable from this product, so each needs a look. Most are fixed by an upgrade, and the advisory names the version.
5 workload settings can give a container the host, behind a chart value or in a stack built from source
adequate5 places run a container privileged or in the host's namespaces only when a Helm value switches them on, or in a compose file that builds the product from this repository, which is how it is developed rather than how it ships. Neither is on by default in what ships. Ask whether production sets the value or runs that stack.
systest/backup/nfs-backup/docker-compose.yml:15 — host access behind a setting or in a local stack |
systest/backup/nfs-backup/docker-compose.yml:159 — host access behind a setting or in a local stack |
systest/backup/nfs-backup/docker-compose.yml:324 — host access behind a setting or in a local stack |
Relicensed: Apache-2.0 → Apache-2.0 with the Commons Clause and an attribution term (2018-04-03) → Apache-2.0 (2025-04-07)
adequateThe root licence changed 2 time(s). Code taken under earlier terms stays under them; check which terms any fork or customer relied on.
LICENSE — Apache-2.0 from 2015-08-25 |
LICENSE.md — Apache-2.0 with the Commons Clause and an attribution term from 2018-04-03 |
LICENSE.md — Apache-2.0 from 2025-04-07 |
9 advisories against this project in the last 24 months, 9 high or critical
adequateThe newest was published on 2026-08-02. A project that publishes advisories is telling its users about its fixes, and the count and pace say how much security work it carries. None of them affects the surveyed version.
| 2026-08-02: GHSA-qj98-gp63-54xj (critical), fixed in 25.4.0: Dgraph: Zero Unauthenticated HTTP Admin removeNode Denial of Service |
| 2026-07-17: GHSA-33p8-wc97-5qcj (high), fixed in v25.3.8: DQL Injection via unvalidated regexp filter argument in GraphQL query rewriter |
| 2026-06-29: GHSA-q2m9-6jp9-c6mc (high), fixed in 25.3.4: Dgraph Vulnerable to DQL Injection via checkUserPassword GraphQL Query |
| 2026-06-13: GHSA-rrwh-6jrq-wp5v (critical), fixed in 25.3.5: Dgraph Alpha group stores can be replaced via unauthenticated external snapshot import |
| 2026-04-22: GHSA-mrxx-39g5-ph77 (critical), fixed in 25.3.3: Dgraph: Pre-Auth Full Database Exfiltration via DQL Injection in Upsert Condition Field |
Observability & Operations
adequateThe service logs with print: 96 calls against 2 logger calls
adequate96 `print` or `console.log` calls in the service's code, and 2 calls through a logger. Printed lines carry no level and no context, cannot be switched off, and are hard to find again in production.
acl/acl.go:120 — print used for logging |
acl/acl.go:136 — print used for logging |
acl/acl.go:158 — print used for logging |
No error reporter is wired in
adequateNothing in the service initialises an error reporter (Sentry, Rollbar, Bugsnag, Honeybadger or an APM agent). An exception in production reaches a person only if someone is reading the logs, which usually means a customer reports it first.
| no error reporter initialised |
2 of 8 deployed images carry no version, or `latest`
adequate2 images in the deployment configuration are named without a version or as `latest`. A redeploy can change the software without a commit, a rollback has nothing to roll back to, and nobody can say from the repository what is running.
ocagent/docker-compose.yml:54 — image without a version |
systest/tracing/jaeger2/docker-compose.yml:27 — image without a version |
Fit with the Acquirer
not assessableNot rated: structurally not assessable from a repository.
Read more, or read your own
The full report on dgraph-io/dgraph: every dimension, the questions for the room, and the audit log.
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