diff --git a/pkg/api/plugins.go b/pkg/api/plugins.go
index 6e01a3414fe479f..ca076671e3628ad 100644
--- a/pkg/api/plugins.go
+++ b/pkg/api/plugins.go
@@ -289,14 +289,27 @@ func (hs *HTTPServer) getPluginAssets(c *models.ReqContext) {
 		return
 	}
 
-	requestedFile := filepath.Clean(web.Params(c.Req)["*"])
-	pluginFilePath := filepath.Join(plugin.PluginDir, requestedFile)
+	// prepend slash for cleaning relative paths
+	requestedFile := filepath.Clean(filepath.Join("/", web.Params(c.Req)["*"]))
+	rel, err := filepath.Rel("/", requestedFile)
+	if err != nil {
+		// slash is prepended above therefore this is not expected to fail
+		c.JsonApiErr(500, "Failed to get the relative path", err)
+		return
+	}
 
-	if !plugin.IncludedInSignature(requestedFile) {
+	if !plugin.IncludedInSignature(rel) {
 		hs.log.Warn("Access to requested plugin file will be forbidden in upcoming Grafana versions as the file "+
 			"is not included in the plugin signature", "file", requestedFile)
 	}
 
+	absPluginDir, err := filepath.Abs(plugin.PluginDir)
+	if err != nil {
+		c.JsonApiErr(500, "Failed to get plugin absolute path", nil)
+		return
+	}
+
+	pluginFilePath := filepath.Join(absPluginDir, rel)
 	// It's safe to ignore gosec warning G304 since we already clean the requested file path and subsequently
 	// use this with a prefix of the plugin's directory, which is set during plugin loading
 	// nolint:gosec
diff --git a/pkg/api/plugins_test.go b/pkg/api/plugins_test.go
index 8b6689a9fbc1a80..fb10aa0e4d34795 100644
--- a/pkg/api/plugins_test.go
+++ b/pkg/api/plugins_test.go
@@ -23,9 +23,13 @@ func Test_GetPluginAssets(t *testing.T) {
 	pluginDir := "."
 	tmpFile, err := ioutil.TempFile(pluginDir, "")
 	require.NoError(t, err)
+	tmpFileInParentDir, err := ioutil.TempFile("..", "")
+	require.NoError(t, err)
 	t.Cleanup(func() {
 		err := os.RemoveAll(tmpFile.Name())
 		assert.NoError(t, err)
+		err = os.RemoveAll(tmpFileInParentDir.Name())
+		assert.NoError(t, err)
 	})
 	expectedBody := "Plugin test"
 	_, err = tmpFile.WriteString(expectedBody)
@@ -61,6 +65,29 @@ func Test_GetPluginAssets(t *testing.T) {
 			})
 	})
 
+	t.Run("Given a request for a relative path", func(t *testing.T) {
+		p := plugins.PluginDTO{
+			JSONData: plugins.JSONData{
+				ID: pluginID,
+			},
+			PluginDir: pluginDir,
+		}
+		service := &fakePluginStore{
+			plugins: map[string]plugins.PluginDTO{
+				pluginID: p,
+			},
+		}
+		l := &logger{}
+
+		url := fmt.Sprintf("/public/plugins/%s/%s", pluginID, tmpFileInParentDir.Name())
+		pluginAssetScenario(t, "When calling GET on", url, "/public/plugins/:pluginId/*", service, l,
+			func(sc *scenarioContext) {
+				callGetPluginAsset(sc)
+
+				require.Equal(t, 404, sc.resp.Code)
+			})
+	})
+
 	t.Run("Given a request for an existing plugin file that is not listed as a signature covered file", func(t *testing.T) {
 		p := plugins.PluginDTO{
 			JSONData: plugins.JSONData{