Package Instance

Apollo Gateway Query Planner Vulnerable to Excessive Resource Consumption via Named Fragment Expansion
# Impact

## Summary

A vulnerability in Apollo Gateway allowed queries with deeply nested and reused named fragments to be prohibitively expensive to query plan, specifically during named fragment expansion. This could lead to excessive resource consumption and denial of service.

## Details

Named fragments were being expanded once per fragment spread during query planning, leading to exponential resource usage when deeply nested and reused fragments were involved.

## Fix/Mitigation

A new **Query Fragment Expansion Limit** metric has been introduced:
  - This metric computes the number of selections a query would have if its fragment spreads were fully expanded.
  - The metric is checked against a limit to prevent excessive computation.

# Patches

This has been remediated in `@apollo/gateway` version 2.10.1.

# Workarounds

No known direct workarounds exist.

# References

[Query Planning Documentation](https://www.apollographql.com/docs/graphos/reference/federation/query-plans)

## Acknowledgements

We appreciate the efforts of the security community in identifying and improving the performance and security of query planning mechanisms.

Apollo Federation vulnerable to prototype pollution via incomplete key sanitization
### Impact

A vulnerability exists in query plan execution within the gateway that may allow pollution of `Object.prototype` in certain scenarios. A malicious client may be able to pollute `Object.prototype` in gateway directly by crafting operations with field aliases and/or variable names that target prototype-inheritable properties. Alternatively, if a subgraph were to be compromised by a malicious actor, they may be able to pollute `Object.prototype` in gateway by crafting JSON response payloads that target prototype-inheritable properties.

Because `Object.prototype` is shared across the Node.js process, successful exploitation can affect subsequent requests to the gateway instance. This may result in unexpected application behavior, privilege escalation, data integrity issues, or other security impact depending on how polluted properties are subsequently consumed by the application or its dependencies. As of the date of this advisory, Apollo is not aware of any reported exploitation of this vulnerability.

### Patches
Mitigations addressing prototype pollution exposure have been applied in `@apollo/federation-internals`, `@apollo/gateway`, and `@apollo/query-planner` versions `2.9.6`, `2.10.5`, `2.11.6`, `2.12.3`, and `2.13.2`.   Users are encouraged to upgrade to these versions or later at their earliest convenience.

### Workarounds
A fully effective workaround is not available without a code change. As an interim measure, users who are unable to upgrade immediately may consider placing an input validation layer in front of the gateway to filter operations containing [GraphQL names](https://spec.graphql.org/September2025/#sec-Names) matching known `Object.prototype` pollution patterns (e.g., `__proto__`, `constructor`, `prototype`). Users should also ensure that subgraphs in their federated graph originate from trusted sources.

Apollo Gateway Query Planner Vulnerable to Excessive Resource Consumption via Optimization Bypass
# Impact

## Summary

A vulnerability in Apollo Gateway allowed queries with deeply nested and reused named fragments to be prohibitively expensive to query plan, specifically due to internal optimizations being frequently bypassed. This could lead to excessive resource consumption and denial of service.

## Details

The query planner includes an optimization that significantly speeds up planning for applicable GraphQL selections. However, queries with deeply nested and reused named fragments can generate many selections where this optimization does not apply, leading to significantly longer planning times. Because the query planner does not enforce a timeout, a small number of such queries can render gateway inoperable.

## Fix/Mitigation

- A new **Query Optimization Limit** metric has been added:
  - This metric approximates the number of selections that cannot be skipped by the existing optimization.
  - The metric is checked against a limit to prevent excessive computation.

Given the complexity of query planning optimizations, we will continue refining these solutions based on real-world performance and accuracy tests.

# Patches

This has been remediated in `@apollo/gateway` version 2.10.1.

# Workarounds

No known direct workarounds exist.

# References

[Query Planning Documentation](https://www.apollographql.com/docs/graphos/reference/federation/query-plans)

## Acknowledgements

We appreciate the efforts of the security community in identifying and improving the performance and security of query planning mechanisms.