CVE-2026-12045
pgAdmin 4: AI Assistant read-only transaction bypass allows unauthorised writes and remote code execution
Description
Read-only transaction bypass in the pgAdmin 4 AI Assistant allows an attacker who can influence database content that the assistant reads to execute arbitrary SQL with the privileges of the pgAdmin user's database role. The AI Assistant's execute_sql_query tool runs LLM-generated SQL inside a BEGIN TRANSACTION READ ONLY wrapper to prevent data modification. The LLM-supplied query was forwarded to the database driver without restriction to a single statement or to read-only verbs, so a multi-statement payload beginning with COMMIT, END, ROLLBACK, or ABORT terminated the read-only transaction and ran subsequent statements in autocommit mode. The trailing ROLLBACK then had no effect. Delivery is via prompt injection: an attacker who can write content into any object the AI Assistant may inspect (a row, a column value, a comment) can cause the LLM to emit the multi-statement payload as a tool call. With ordinary write privileges on the pgAdmin user's role the attacker can perform unauthorised data modification. When the pgAdmin user's role is a PostgreSQL superuser or holds pg_execute_server_program, the chain extends to remote code execution on the database server host via COPY ... TO PROGRAM. Fix validates the LLM-supplied query up front: it must parse to exactly one non-empty / non-comment statement whose leading real token (after stripping whitespace, comments, and punctuation) is one of SELECT, WITH, EXPLAIN, SHOW, VALUES, or TABLE. Transaction-control verbs, DML, DDL, CALL, COPY, DO, SET/RESET, and everything else are rejected before any database work happens. PostgreSQL's READ ONLY mode continues to backstop data-modifying CTEs, EXPLAIN ANALYZE on writes, and volatile side effects. This issue affects pgAdmin 4: from 9.13 before 9.16.
INFO
Published Date :
June 18, 2026, 11:37 p.m.
Last Modified :
June 18, 2026, 11:37 p.m.
Remotely Exploit :
No
Source :
PostgreSQL
Affected Products
The following products are affected by CVE-2026-12045
vulnerability.
Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the
products
that
are
affected, the information is not represented in the table below.
No affected product recoded yet
CVSS Scores
| Score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability Score | Impact Score | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 3.1 | CRITICAL | f86ef6dc-4d3a-42ad-8f28-e6d5547a5007 | ||||
| CVSS 4.0 | CRITICAL | f86ef6dc-4d3a-42ad-8f28-e6d5547a5007 |
Solution
- Update pgAdmin 4 to version 9.16 or later.
- Validate LLM queries for single, non-modifying statements.
- Ensure transaction control verbs are rejected.
- Configure PostgreSQL READ ONLY mode appropriately.
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