PostgreSQL up to 12.17/13.13/14.10/15.5 privilege dropping

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in PostgreSQL up to 12.17/13.13/14.10/15.5. The affected element is an unknown function. Executing a manipulation can lead to privilege dropping. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2024-0985. The attack may be launched remotely. There is no exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in PostgreSQL up to 12.17/13.13/14.10/15.5 (Database Software). It has been declared as critical. This vulnerability affects an unknown function. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a privilege dropping vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-271. The product does not drop privileges before passing control of a resource to an actor that does not have those privileges. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

Late privilege drop in REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW CONCURRENTLY in PostgreSQL allows an object creator to execute arbitrary SQL functions as the command issuer. The command intends to run SQL functions as the owner of the materialized view, enabling safe refresh of untrusted materialized views. The victim is a superuser or member of one of the attacker's roles. The attack requires luring the victim into running REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW CONCURRENTLY on the attacker's materialized view. As part of exploiting this vulnerability, the attacker creates functions that use CREATE RULE to convert the internally-built temporary table to a view. Versions before PostgreSQL 15.6, 14.11, 13.14, and 12.18 are affected. The only known exploit does not work in PostgreSQL 16 and later. For defense in depth, PostgreSQL 16.2 adds the protections that older branches are using to fix their vulnerability.

The weakness was shared 02/08/2024. The advisory is shared for download at postgresql.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2024-0985 since 01/27/2024. Successful exploitation requires user interaction by the victim. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1068.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 216614 (Oracle Linux 9 : postgresql:15 (ELSA-2025-1741)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 12.18, 13.14, 14.11, 15.6 or 16.2 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (216614). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Database Software

Name

• PostgreSQL

Version

• 12.0
• 12.1
• 12.2
• 12.3
• 12.4
• 12.5
• 12.6
• 12.7
• 12.8
• 12.9
• 12.10
• 12.11
• 12.12
• 12.13
• 12.14
• 12.15
• 12.16
• 12.17
• 13.0
• 13.1
• 13.2
• 13.3
• 13.4
• 13.5
• 13.6
• 13.7
• 13.8
• 13.9
• 13.10
• 13.11
• 13.12
• 13.13
• 14.0
• 14.1
• 14.2
• 14.3
• 14.4
• 14.5
• 14.6
• 14.7
• 14.8
• 14.9
• 14.10
• 15.0
• 15.1
• 15.2
• 15.3
• 15.4
• 15.5

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://www.postgresql.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Discussion