CVE-2026-116252

In pgAdmin 4, changing a user's password (by the user or an administrator) did not invalidate existing sessions. A session established before the change, e.g. on another device or by someone with the old password, stayed logged in until it expired.

In server mode pgAdmin 4 validated a user-supplied file path in the storage directory with check_access_permission() and then opened it by name using a plain open() or passed the path to utilities (pg_dump, pg_dumpall, pg_restore, psql) and to servers.json export/import and import file listing. Swapping in a symbolic or hard link or a FIFO between the check and the open redirected the operation outside the storage directory, allowing a file to be written, overwritten or read, or loaded into a table, as the pgAdmin operating-system account. This affects pgAdmin 4 before 9.19.

In pgAdmin 4 server mode before 9.19, get_complete_file_path() only stripped leading slashes before joining paths, so a path such as ../<another user>/.pgpass could name another user's file. The sslkeylogfile parameter was passed to libpq unchanged, and make_conninfo() quoted parameter values but not names, allowing additional keyword=value pairs to be smuggled in.

In pgAdmin 4 server mode, the server API create and update endpoints stored the "shared" flag and shared username, letting any user able to register a server share it with everyone. The servers.json import had a similar gap, as a non-administrator's "Shared" entries were removed only after validation.

In pgAdmin 4 before 9.19, when a server had no password file, client certificate, or client key configured, or the configured file could not be found, pgAdmin omitted the parameter and libpq fell back to the defaults of the operating-system account running pgAdmin. In server mode any user could therefore connect using the service account's saved passwords or client certificate.

In pgAdmin 4, the server password was written into pgAdmin's own process environment (as PGPASSWORD for the PSQL tool and under a per-process variable for a utility) and never removed. In server mode the environment is shared across all users' requests and copied into started processes, so another user could inherit the password and use it to connect.

In pgAdmin 4 server mode, libpq looks up connection services in the service file of the operating-system account, allowing users to use that account's credentials or certificate files. The vulnerability affects versions before 9.19 and can lead to unauthorized access to database servers.

In pgAdmin 4 server mode, removing KRB5CCNAME caused the Kerberos library to fall back to the service account's default credential cache, allowing any user to connect as the service principal. The vulnerability affects versions before 9.19 and also includes bypassing gssencmode=disable and SSPI behavior on Windows.

In pgAdmin 4 server mode, the user-set binary path was not checked against SHARED_STORAGE directories, allowing an executable to be uploaded and run as the pgAdmin service account. The vulnerability is especially relevant on Windows where files can be executable, and affects versions before 9.19.

In pgAdmin 4 server mode, the sshtunnel library always loaded unencrypted private keys from the service account's ~/.ssh and read its SSH configuration, allowing any user to configure a tunnel using the service account's identity. The vulnerability affects versions before 9.19.