pgAdmin 4: Import/Export Data query export runs a command through a backslash in a double-quoted identifier
- Last modified
- Where the record stands: published, rejected by its publisher, or superseded by another id.What do these mean? →
- published
- Whether CISA lists it in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog: proof that attackers are using it.What do these mean? →
- Not listed in CISA KEV
- Fix
- Fixed in 9.19
- Whether working attack code is public (Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or GitHub). Public code makes attacks easier.What do these mean? →
- None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
Summary
pgAdmin 4 (the Import/Export Data feature, specifically query export) is affected, with impact that lets a non-administrator database user run operating-system commands on the pgAdmin host as the account running pgAdmin. The flaw allows a crafted query to bypass input checks so that a command is executed by the local psql client before the server rejects the statement.
Summarized by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5. Verify details against the original sources.
Read the original description
pgAdmin 4's Import/Export Data tool wraps a user's query export in a psql \copy (...) TO command and checks that the query's parentheses are balanced so that nothing can escape the wrapper. The check rejected a backslash inside a single-quoted string, but not inside a double-quoted identifier, where it treated the next double quote as closing the identifier. psql's \copy parser applies the connection's escape character to whichever quote opened a token, so with standard_conforming_strings off a backslash-escaped double quote does not close the identifier. pgAdmin's and psql's view of the quoting then diverged, a closing parenthesis hidden from the check ended the \copy (...) wrapper, and a following TO PROGRAM clause was executed by psql on the pgAdmin host, as the operating-system account running pgAdmin, before the server rejected the statement. An ordinary database role can turn standard_conforming_strings off for itself, and the Import/Export Data permission is granted to non-administrators by default. This is a bypass of the fix for CVE-2026-17566. The fix rejects any backslash inside a double-quoted identifier, as was already done for single-quoted strings, since its meaning depends on a server setting that cannot be known reliably when the query is validated. This issue affects pgAdmin 4: before 9.19.
Timeline
- CVE published
- First seen by cve.now
- Posted on X by cve.now
Affected versions
- pgadmin.org pgAdmin 4
fixed in 9.19