diff --git a/pkg/api/avatar/avatar.go b/pkg/api/avatar/avatar.go
index 9eb99db8b3b..95b6cea3efc 100644
--- a/pkg/api/avatar/avatar.go
+++ b/pkg/api/avatar/avatar.go
@@ -132,6 +132,9 @@ func newNotFound() *Avatar {
 	avatar := &Avatar{notFound: true}
 
 	// load user_profile png into buffer
+	// It's safe to ignore gosec warning G304 since the variable part of the file path comes from a configuration
+	// variable.
+	// nolint:gosec
 	path := filepath.Join(setting.StaticRootPath, "img", "user_profile.png")
 
 	if data, err := ioutil.ReadFile(path); err != nil {
diff --git a/pkg/api/dashboard.go b/pkg/api/dashboard.go
index d4643773409..51d38bb0a77 100644
--- a/pkg/api/dashboard.go
+++ b/pkg/api/dashboard.go
@@ -341,6 +341,9 @@ func (hs *HTTPServer) GetHomeDashboard(c *models.ReqContext) Response {
 		filePath = filepath.Join(hs.Cfg.StaticRootPath, "dashboards/home.json")
 	}
 
+	// It's safe to ignore gosec warning G304 since the variable part of the file path comes from a configuration
+	// variable
+	// nolint:gosec
 	file, err := os.Open(filePath)
 	if err != nil {
 		return Error(500, "Failed to load home dashboard", err)
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/commands/install_command.go b/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/commands/install_command.go
index 558ca9b3da4..311b686165e 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/commands/install_command.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/commands/install_command.go
@@ -291,6 +291,10 @@ func extractFile(file *zip.File, filePath string) (err error) {
 		fileMode = os.FileMode(0755)
 	}
 
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one, since the variable part of the file path stems
+	// from command line flag "pluginsDir", and the only possible damage would be writing to the wrong directory.
+	// If the user shouldn't be writing to this directory, they shouldn't have the permission in the file system.
+	// nolint:gosec
 	dst, err := os.OpenFile(filePath, os.O_RDWR|os.O_CREATE|os.O_TRUNC, fileMode)
 	if err != nil {
 		if os.IsPermission(err) {
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/services/api_client.go b/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/services/api_client.go
index 2aa40a2a2de..1ac8cbf6458 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/services/api_client.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/services/api_client.go
@@ -44,8 +44,11 @@ func (client *GrafanaComClient) GetPlugin(pluginId, repoUrl string) (models.Plug
 }
 
 func (client *GrafanaComClient) DownloadFile(pluginName string, tmpFile *os.File, url string, checksum string) (err error) {
-	// Try handling url like local file path first
+	// Try handling URL as a local file path first
 	if _, err := os.Stat(url); err == nil {
+		// We can ignore this gosec G304 warning since `url` stems from command line flag "pluginUrl". If the
+		// user shouldn't be able to read the file, it should be handled through filesystem permissions.
+		// nolint:gosec
 		f, err := os.Open(url)
 		if err != nil {
 			return errutil.Wrap("Failed to read plugin archive", err)
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/services/io_util.go b/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/services/io_util.go
index b1f1c140e2c..38aa81d94f7 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/services/io_util.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/services/io_util.go
@@ -21,5 +21,9 @@ func (i IoUtilImp) ReadDir(path string) ([]os.FileInfo, error) {
 }
 
 func (i IoUtilImp) ReadFile(filename string) ([]byte, error) {
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one, since the variable part of the file path stems
+	// from command line flag "pluginsDir". If the user shouldn't be reading from this directory, they shouldn't have
+	// the permission in the file system.
+	// nolint:gosec
 	return ioutil.ReadFile(filename)
 }
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/utils/grafana_path.go b/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/utils/grafana_path.go
index aba5e1b8d48..51f953d26cd 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/utils/grafana_path.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/grafana-cli/utils/grafana_path.go
@@ -16,8 +16,8 @@ func GetGrafanaPluginDir(currentOS string) string {
 	return returnOsDefault(currentOS)
 }
 
-// getGrafanaRoot tries to get root of directory when developing grafana ie repo root. It is not perfect it just
-// checks what is the binary path and tries to guess based on that but if it is not running in dev env you get a bogus
+// getGrafanaRoot tries to get root of directory when developing grafana, ie. repo root. It is not perfect, it just
+// checks what is the binary path and tries to guess based on that, but if it is not running in dev env you get a bogus
 // path back.
 func getGrafanaRoot() (string, error) {
 	ex, err := os.Executable()
diff --git a/pkg/components/imguploader/azureblobuploader.go b/pkg/components/imguploader/azureblobuploader.go
index 160e2b5119a..80023b8c30c 100644
--- a/pkg/components/imguploader/azureblobuploader.go
+++ b/pkg/components/imguploader/azureblobuploader.go
@@ -45,6 +45,9 @@ func (az *AzureBlobUploader) Upload(ctx context.Context, imageDiskPath string) (
 	// setup client
 	blob := NewStorageClient(az.account_name, az.account_key)
 
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `imageDiskPath` comes
+	// from alert notifiers and is only used to upload images generated by alerting.
+	// nolint:gosec
 	file, err := os.Open(imageDiskPath)
 	if err != nil {
 		return "", err
diff --git a/pkg/components/imguploader/gcs/gcsuploader.go b/pkg/components/imguploader/gcs/gcsuploader.go
index e869623cb45..391e5b78ece 100644
--- a/pkg/components/imguploader/gcs/gcsuploader.go
+++ b/pkg/components/imguploader/gcs/gcsuploader.go
@@ -149,6 +149,10 @@ func (u *Uploader) uploadFile(
 	key string,
 ) error {
 	u.log.Debug("Opening image file", "path", imageDiskPath)
+
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `imageDiskPath` comes
+	// from alert notifiers and is only used to upload images generated by alerting.
+	// nolint:gosec
 	fileReader, err := os.Open(imageDiskPath)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
diff --git a/pkg/components/imguploader/s3uploader.go b/pkg/components/imguploader/s3uploader.go
index 59ee5a11098..d0b8b251740 100644
--- a/pkg/components/imguploader/s3uploader.go
+++ b/pkg/components/imguploader/s3uploader.go
@@ -76,6 +76,9 @@ func (u *S3Uploader) Upload(ctx context.Context, imageDiskPath string) (string,
 	key := u.path + rand + pngExt
 	log.Debugf("Uploading image to s3. bucket = %s, path = %s", u.bucket, key)
 
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `imageDiskPath` comes
+	// from alert notifiers and is only used to upload images generated by alerting.
+	// nolint:gosec
 	file, err := os.Open(imageDiskPath)
 	if err != nil {
 		return "", err
diff --git a/pkg/components/imguploader/webdavuploader.go b/pkg/components/imguploader/webdavuploader.go
index f0a157a8291..3fd9894a8cf 100644
--- a/pkg/components/imguploader/webdavuploader.go
+++ b/pkg/components/imguploader/webdavuploader.go
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ func (u *WebdavUploader) PublicURL(filename string) string {
 	return publicURL.String()
 }
 
-func (u *WebdavUploader) Upload(ctx context.Context, pa string) (string, error) {
+func (u *WebdavUploader) Upload(ctx context.Context, imgToUpload string) (string, error) {
 	url, _ := url.Parse(u.url)
 	filename, err := util.GetRandomString(20)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -55,7 +55,10 @@ func (u *WebdavUploader) Upload(ctx context.Context, pa string) (string, error)
 	filename += pngExt
 	url.Path = path.Join(url.Path, filename)
 
-	imgData, err := ioutil.ReadFile(pa)
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `imgToUpload` comes
+	// from alert notifiers and is only used to upload images generated by alerting.
+	// nolint:gosec
+	imgData, err := ioutil.ReadFile(imgToUpload)
 	if err != nil {
 		return "", err
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/middleware/recovery.go b/pkg/middleware/recovery.go
index c238ecbfeee..8048cc6f53b 100644
--- a/pkg/middleware/recovery.go
+++ b/pkg/middleware/recovery.go
@@ -52,6 +52,9 @@ func stack(skip int) []byte {
 		// Print this much at least.  If we can't find the source, it won't show.
 		fmt.Fprintf(buf, "%s:%d (0x%x)\n", file, line, pc)
 		if file != lastFile {
+			// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `file`
+			// comes from the runtime.Caller() function.
+			// nolint:gosec
 			data, err := ioutil.ReadFile(file)
 			if err != nil {
 				continue
diff --git a/pkg/plugins/dashboards.go b/pkg/plugins/dashboards.go
index f2d533b1de1..6cd9f827449 100644
--- a/pkg/plugins/dashboards.go
+++ b/pkg/plugins/dashboards.go
@@ -95,6 +95,10 @@ func loadPluginDashboard(pluginId, path string) (*models.Dashboard, error) {
 		return nil, PluginNotFoundError{pluginId}
 	}
 
+	// nolint:gosec
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `plugin.PluginDir` is based
+	// on plugin folder structure on disk and not user input. `path` comes from the
+	// `plugin.json` configuration file for the loaded plugin
 	dashboardFilePath := filepath.Join(plugin.PluginDir, path)
 	reader, err := os.Open(dashboardFilePath)
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/pkg/plugins/manifest.go b/pkg/plugins/manifest.go
index b082dedf2d2..4eaf721bad6 100644
--- a/pkg/plugins/manifest.go
+++ b/pkg/plugins/manifest.go
@@ -87,6 +87,9 @@ func getPluginSignatureState(log log.Logger, plugin *PluginBase) PluginSignature
 	log.Debug("Getting signature state of plugin", "plugin", plugin.Id, "isBackend", plugin.Backend)
 	manifestPath := filepath.Join(plugin.PluginDir, "MANIFEST.txt")
 
+	// nolint:gosec
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `manifestPath` is based
+	// on plugin the folder structure on disk and not user input.
 	byteValue, err := ioutil.ReadFile(manifestPath)
 	if err != nil || len(byteValue) < 10 {
 		log.Debug("Plugin is unsigned", "id", plugin.Id)
@@ -109,6 +112,10 @@ func getPluginSignatureState(log log.Logger, plugin *PluginBase) PluginSignature
 	for p, hash := range manifest.Files {
 		// Open the file
 		fp := filepath.Join(plugin.PluginDir, p)
+
+		// nolint:gosec
+		// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `fp` is based
+		// on the manifest file for a plugin and not user input.
 		f, err := os.Open(fp)
 		if err != nil {
 			return PluginSignatureModified
diff --git a/pkg/plugins/plugins.go b/pkg/plugins/plugins.go
index 77a73f71a3f..754a5eab16e 100644
--- a/pkg/plugins/plugins.go
+++ b/pkg/plugins/plugins.go
@@ -269,6 +269,9 @@ func (pm *PluginManager) scan(pluginDir string, requireSigned bool) error {
 			}
 		}
 
+		// nolint:gosec
+		// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `jsonFPath` is based
+		// on plugin the folder structure on disk and not user input.
 		reader, err := os.Open(jsonFPath)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
@@ -332,6 +335,9 @@ func (s *PluginScanner) walker(currentPath string, f os.FileInfo, err error) err
 		return nil
 	}
 
+	// nolint:gosec
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `currentPath` is based
+	// on plugin the folder structure on disk and not user input.
 	if err := s.loadPlugin(currentPath); err != nil {
 		s.log.Error("Failed to load plugin", "error", err, "pluginPath", filepath.Dir(currentPath))
 		s.errors = append(s.errors, err)
@@ -471,6 +477,9 @@ func GetPluginMarkdown(pluginId string, name string) ([]byte, error) {
 		return nil, PluginNotFoundError{pluginId}
 	}
 
+	// nolint:gosec
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `plug.PluginDir` is based
+	// on plugin the folder structure on disk and not user input.
 	path := filepath.Join(plug.PluginDir, fmt.Sprintf("%s.md", strings.ToUpper(name)))
 	exists, err := fs.Exists(path)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -488,6 +497,9 @@ func GetPluginMarkdown(pluginId string, name string) ([]byte, error) {
 		return make([]byte, 0), nil
 	}
 
+	// nolint:gosec
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `plug.PluginDir` is based
+	// on plugin the folder structure on disk and not user input.
 	data, err := ioutil.ReadFile(path)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
diff --git a/pkg/services/alerting/notifiers/discord.go b/pkg/services/alerting/notifiers/discord.go
index a80d6ad429e..5bbc5039b93 100644
--- a/pkg/services/alerting/notifiers/discord.go
+++ b/pkg/services/alerting/notifiers/discord.go
@@ -159,6 +159,9 @@ func (dn *DiscordNotifier) Notify(evalContext *alerting.EvalContext) error {
 }
 
 func (dn *DiscordNotifier) embedImage(cmd *models.SendWebhookSync, imagePath string, existingJSONBody []byte) error {
+	// nolint:gosec
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `imagePath` comes
+	// from the alert `evalContext` that generates the images.
 	f, err := os.Open(imagePath)
 	if err != nil {
 		if os.IsNotExist(err) {
diff --git a/pkg/services/alerting/notifiers/slack.go b/pkg/services/alerting/notifiers/slack.go
index e7f7e4c804b..cfd4c053cc6 100644
--- a/pkg/services/alerting/notifiers/slack.go
+++ b/pkg/services/alerting/notifiers/slack.go
@@ -331,6 +331,8 @@ func (sn *SlackNotifier) Notify(evalContext *alerting.EvalContext) error {
 
 func (sn *SlackNotifier) slackFileUpload(evalContext *alerting.EvalContext, log log.Logger, url string, recipient string, token string) error {
 	if evalContext.ImageOnDiskPath == "" {
+		// nolint:gosec
+		// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `setting.HomePath` comes from Grafana's configuration file.
 		evalContext.ImageOnDiskPath = filepath.Join(setting.HomePath, "public/img/mixed_styles.png")
 	}
 	log.Info("Uploading to slack via file.upload API")
@@ -360,6 +362,10 @@ func (sn *SlackNotifier) generateSlackBody(path string, token string, recipient
 	}()
 
 	// Add the generated image file
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `imagePath` comes
+	// from the alert `evalContext` that generates the images. `evalContext` in turn derives the root of the file
+	// path from configuration variables.
+	// nolint:gosec
 	f, err := os.Open(path)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, b, err
diff --git a/pkg/services/ldap/ldap.go b/pkg/services/ldap/ldap.go
index 1d9b02d786e..c7084839b04 100644
--- a/pkg/services/ldap/ldap.go
+++ b/pkg/services/ldap/ldap.go
@@ -95,6 +95,8 @@ func (server *Server) Dial() error {
 	if server.Config.RootCACert != "" {
 		certPool = x509.NewCertPool()
 		for _, caCertFile := range strings.Split(server.Config.RootCACert, " ") {
+			// nolint:gosec
+			// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `caCertFile` comes from ldap config.
 			pem, err := ioutil.ReadFile(caCertFile)
 			if err != nil {
 				return err
diff --git a/pkg/services/ldap/settings.go b/pkg/services/ldap/settings.go
index fa4248108e3..93e94f3e016 100644
--- a/pkg/services/ldap/settings.go
+++ b/pkg/services/ldap/settings.go
@@ -115,6 +115,8 @@ func readConfig(configFile string) (*Config, error) {
 
 	logger.Info("LDAP enabled, reading config file", "file", configFile)
 
+	// nolint:gosec
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `filename` comes from grafana configuration file
 	fileBytes, err := ioutil.ReadFile(configFile)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, errutil.Wrap("Failed to load LDAP config file", err)
diff --git a/pkg/services/provisioning/dashboards/config_reader.go b/pkg/services/provisioning/dashboards/config_reader.go
index df2d6c7bb39..92eb9a10eae 100644
--- a/pkg/services/provisioning/dashboards/config_reader.go
+++ b/pkg/services/provisioning/dashboards/config_reader.go
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@ type configReader struct {
 
 func (cr *configReader) parseConfigs(file os.FileInfo) ([]*config, error) {
 	filename, _ := filepath.Abs(filepath.Join(cr.path, file.Name()))
+
+	// nolint:gosec
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `filename` comes from ps.Cfg.ProvisioningPath
 	yamlFile, err := ioutil.ReadFile(filename)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
diff --git a/pkg/services/provisioning/dashboards/file_reader.go b/pkg/services/provisioning/dashboards/file_reader.go
index bbf4c0d7739..576b62d4cf0 100644
--- a/pkg/services/provisioning/dashboards/file_reader.go
+++ b/pkg/services/provisioning/dashboards/file_reader.go
@@ -343,6 +343,8 @@ type dashboardJSONFile struct {
 }
 
 func (fr *FileReader) readDashboardFromFile(path string, lastModified time.Time, folderID int64) (*dashboardJSONFile, error) {
+	// nolint:gosec
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `path` comes from the provisioning configuration file.
 	reader, err := os.Open(path)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
diff --git a/pkg/services/provisioning/datasources/config_reader.go b/pkg/services/provisioning/datasources/config_reader.go
index 52a5aa430b8..191ab962342 100644
--- a/pkg/services/provisioning/datasources/config_reader.go
+++ b/pkg/services/provisioning/datasources/config_reader.go
@@ -49,6 +49,9 @@ func (cr *configReader) readConfig(path string) ([]*configs, error) {
 
 func (cr *configReader) parseDatasourceConfig(path string, file os.FileInfo) (*configs, error) {
 	filename, _ := filepath.Abs(filepath.Join(path, file.Name()))
+
+	// nolint:gosec
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `filename` comes from ps.Cfg.ProvisioningPath
 	yamlFile, err := ioutil.ReadFile(filename)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
diff --git a/pkg/services/provisioning/notifiers/config_reader.go b/pkg/services/provisioning/notifiers/config_reader.go
index c2d40270bb4..17886adba36 100644
--- a/pkg/services/provisioning/notifiers/config_reader.go
+++ b/pkg/services/provisioning/notifiers/config_reader.go
@@ -61,6 +61,9 @@ func (cr *configReader) readConfig(path string) ([]*notificationsAsConfig, error
 
 func (cr *configReader) parseNotificationConfig(path string, file os.FileInfo) (*notificationsAsConfig, error) {
 	filename, _ := filepath.Abs(filepath.Join(path, file.Name()))
+
+	// nolint:gosec
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `filename` comes from ps.Cfg.ProvisioningPath
 	yamlFile, err := ioutil.ReadFile(filename)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
diff --git a/pkg/services/provisioning/plugins/config_reader.go b/pkg/services/provisioning/plugins/config_reader.go
index ec95c40cf78..fe5175cf066 100644
--- a/pkg/services/provisioning/plugins/config_reader.go
+++ b/pkg/services/provisioning/plugins/config_reader.go
@@ -69,6 +69,8 @@ func (cr *configReaderImpl) parsePluginConfig(path string, file os.FileInfo) (*p
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
+	// nolint:gosec
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `filename` comes from ps.Cfg.ProvisioningPath
 	yamlFile, err := ioutil.ReadFile(filename)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
diff --git a/pkg/setting/expanders.go b/pkg/setting/expanders.go
index 021722ba998..c6f9a61f582 100644
--- a/pkg/setting/expanders.go
+++ b/pkg/setting/expanders.go
@@ -138,6 +138,8 @@ func (e fileExpander) Expand(s string) (string, error) {
 		return "", err
 	}
 
+	// nolint:gosec
+	// We can ignore the gosec G304 warning on this one because `s` comes from configuration section keys
 	f, err := ioutil.ReadFile(s)
 	if err != nil {
 		return "", err