pgAdmin up to 9.17 Import Export Data /import_export/job create_import_export_job os command injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as critical has been discovered in pgAdmin up to 9.17. This issue affects the function create_import_export_job of the file /import_export/job of the component Import Export Data. The manipulation results in os command injection. This vulnerability is reported as CVE-2026-17566. The attack can be launched remotely. No exploit exists.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in pgAdmin up to 9.17. Affected is the function create_import_export_job of the file /import_export/job of the component Import Export Data. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a os command injection vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-78. The product constructs all or part of an OS command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended OS command when it is sent to a downstream component. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

pgAdmin 4's Import/Export Data tool builds a psql \copy (...) command line by interpolating a user-supplied SQL query into a Jinja template and passing the rendered line to psql via --command. To stop an attacker from breaking out of the (...) wrapper, create_import_export_job() (route POST /import_export/job/<sid>, gated only by the ordinary, commonly-granted tools_import_export_data permission) validated the query with a hand-written parenthesis-balance checker, _is_query_parens_balanced(). That checker always treated a backslash before a single quote (\') as escaping the quote, i.e. as if standard_conforming_strings were off. PostgreSQL has defaulted standard_conforming_strings to on since 9.1 (2010), the default on every PostgreSQL version pgAdmin 4 currently supports (13-18); under that default psql's own \copy tokenizer treats \ as an ordinary character, so a single quote immediately after it closes the string literal. A query such as SELECT 'a\') TO PROGRAM 'echo pwned' x' was therefore accepted as "balanced" by pgAdmin's checker (which believed the ) was still inside the string), while psql, run through the actual rendered command line, closes the string at that point and treats the following ) as the end of the wrapping \copy (...) subquery, exposing an attacker-chosen TO PROGRAM '<command>' clause that psql executes via popen() -- independent of a subsequent syntax error later on the same line. This is the same class of bug as CVE-2025-12762/CVE-2025-13780 (RCE via psql meta-command/COPY injection during PLAIN-format dump restore), reached through an independently written defense in a different module (Import/Export Data rather than Restore) that had its own, different logic bug (inverted backslash-escape semantics rather than a BOM-defeated regex anchor). The fix rejects any backslash inside a single-quoted string in the query outright, rather than picking one of the two possible psql interpretations. This is intentionally conservative: because the correct interpretation of \ depends on the target server's standard_conforming_strings setting, which the checker cannot reliably know at validation time, refusing the query is safer than guessing. This issue affects pgAdmin 4: from the introduction of _is_query_parens_balanced() before 9.18.

The advisory is shared for download at github.com. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-17566 since 07/27/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1202.

Upgrading to version 9.18 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Name

• pgAdmin

Version

• 9.0
• 9.1
• 9.2
• 9.3
• 9.4
• 9.5
• 9.6
• 9.7
• 9.8
• 9.9
• 9.10
• 9.11
• 9.12
• 9.13
• 9.14
• 9.15
• 9.16
• 9.17

CPE 2.3info

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• 🔒
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CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

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Entryinfo

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