Neo4j is a graph database platform that stores data as nodes and relationships instead of rows and columns. This model is useful when connections matter, such as user graphs, permissions, asset inventories, fraud links, or dependency maps. Queries can follow relationships directly, making multi-step lookups efficient and expressive.
In cyber security, Neo4j often appears inside applications that build APIs or analytics on top of connected data. That makes access control especially important: a user who is allowed to read one record may be able to reach many more through linked nodes if authorization is not enforced at every step. Attackers can abuse weak permission checks, overly broad queries, or generated API behavior to expose sensitive relationships or escalate access. Defenders should protect Neo4j deployments with strict server-side authorization, least-privilege roles, input validation, and query limits that reduce the impact of abusive traversal or data extraction.