Read 2026-10-23
influxdata/telegraf: technical due diligence, read from its repository
What Borehole read in influxdata/telegraf's code and history at 8680868: 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 | adequate |
| Security & Reliability Posture | adequate |
| Observability & Operations | strong |
| Fit with the Acquirer | not assessable |
What the repository says
- Releases are cut from another branch than the one surveyed
.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md:12: states a policy on AI-generated contributions
Architecture & Codebase — including AI provenance
strongplugins/parsers/influx/machine.go is 3,811 lines, 34× this codebase's median file
adequateThe median source file here is 112 lines. 10 files exceed 1,120 lines, the largest being 3,811. 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.
plugins/parsers/influx/machine.go:1 — 3,811 lines (34× median) |
config/config.go:1 — 2,085 lines (18× median) |
plugins/inputs/mysql/mysql.go:1 — 1,999 lines (17× median) |
plugins/inputs/zipkin/codec/thrift/gen-go/zipkincore/zipkinCore.go:1 — 1,565 lines (13× median) |
plugins/inputs/sqlserver/sqlserverqueries.go:1 — 1,483 lines (13× median) |
Engineering Process & SDLC Maturity
strongNo finding.
Product & Engineering Maturity
adequate257 direct dependencies in a single manifest
adequatego.mod declares 257 direct dependencies. Each one is a maintenance obligation, a supply-chain surface and a potential licence question that transfers with the asset. The count says nothing about whether any given dependency was a good choice; it says how many such choices a buyer inherits.
go.mod — 257 declared |
5 files still carry code deprecated more than two years ago
adequate5 files were marked deprecated over two years ago and still are, the oldest since Nov 2021. A deprecation is a promise to remove. Ask what still depends on these, and whether removing them is scheduled.
plugins/inputs/jti_openconfig_telemetry/auth/authentication_service.pb.go — deprecated since Nov 2021 |
plugins/inputs/jti_openconfig_telemetry/oc/oc.pb.go — deprecated since Nov 2021 |
config/deprecation.go — deprecated since Dec 2021 |
cmd/telegraf/main.go — deprecated since Aug 2022 |
plugins/parsers/openmetrics/openmetrics_data_model.pb.go — deprecated since May 2024 |
Releases are cut from another branch than the one surveyed
adequateThe newest release, v1.40.2, is not on the branch this survey read; the newest release on it is 0.13.1. The shipped product may differ from what this report describes. Survey the release branch too.
| tag v1.40.2 |
Security & Reliability Posture
adequate1 Dockerfile runs 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.
plugins/outputs/postgresql/Dockerfile — runs as root |
The build runs third-party code it does not pin
adequate3 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/linter.yml:57 — action pinned by tag |
.github/workflows/milestones.yml:20 — action pinned by tag |
3 outbound calls can wait forever
adequate3 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.
plugins/inputs/prometheus/kubernetes.go:267 — outbound call without a timeout |
plugins/outputs/newrelic/newrelic.go:163 — outbound call without a timeout |
plugins/outputs/opentelemetry/client_http.go:27 — outbound call without a timeout |
2 SQL statements built from strings
adequate2 places in product code build SQL by formatting or joining strings rather than passing parameters. 1 of them put a value into the string; in the rest, what the code shows going in is a table or column name, a constant, or something the line does not show. Ask whether any value reaches these strings, rather than a parameter.
plugins/inputs/clickhouse/clickhouse.go:111 — SQL built from a string |
plugins/inputs/mysql/mysql.go:1832 — SQL built from a string |
1 locked dependency has published vulnerabilities
adequate1 of 619 locked dependencies match 1 published advisories in OSV. 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. This lockfile pins development tools alongside what ships and does not say which is which, so some of these may never reach a user.
go.mod — github.com/go-chi/chi/v5 v5.3.2: GHSA-j6qf-3m9c-vwj3 (moderate), fixed in 5.4.0 |
Observability & Operations
strongNo 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 |
5 of 8 deployed images carry no version, or `latest`
adequate5 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.
plugins/inputs/zookeeper/dev/docker-compose.yml:7 — image without a version |
plugins/inputs/mongodb/dev/docker-compose.yml:4 — image without a version |
plugins/inputs/mysql/dev/docker-compose.yml:13 — image without a version |
Fit with the Acquirer
not assessableNot rated: structurally not assessable from a repository.
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