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pgAdmin 4: RCE via backslash-escape mismatch in Import/Export Data query guard (incomplete defense, sibling gap to CVE-2025-13780)

Type: advisorySources: OSV

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/, 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 '' 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-comm

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2026-17566
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
4 Nov 2026, 16:45 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

pgAdmin 4: RCE via backslash-escape mismatch in Import/Export Data query guard (incomplete defense, sibling gap to CVE-2025-13780)

core-osv · Original source

Published 31 Jul 2026, 16:00 UTC

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/, 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 '' 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-comm

osv:CVE-2026-17566
Complete source record
{
  "id": "72a4ae0ff8250b9f58f8418891cfe19c9675e20c7fcf49551c159d8e0d9734a3",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-17566",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "pgAdmin 4: RCE via backslash-escape mismatch in Import/Export Data query guard (incomplete defense, sibling gap to CVE-2025-13780)",
    "summary": "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/, 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 '' 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-comm",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2026-17566",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "critical",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2026-17566",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2026-17566"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V4",
          "score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/pgadmin-org/pgadmin4",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
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                  "introduced": "0"
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                {
                  "fixed": "f09776c22d9dc7c1130f01d416ee43c5db5f11cb"
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                {
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                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:pgadmin:pgadmin_4:*:*:*:*:*:postgresql:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "0"
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                      {
                        "fixed": "9.18"
                      }
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                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "1496fabe28c9f825f6bac0f0d000d9d3276322c3"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
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                ]
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            }
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          "versions": [
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            "REL-6_21",
            "REL-6_20",
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            "REL-6_18",
            "REL-6_17",
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            "REL-3_6",
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            "REL-3_2",
            "REL-3_1",
            "REL-3_0",
            "REL-2_1",
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            "REL-1_5",
            "REL-1_4",
            "REL-1_3",
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            "REL-1_1",
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            "REL-1_0-BETA4",
            "REL-1_0-BETA3",
            "REL-1_0-BETA2",
            "REL-1_0-BETA1"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2026-17566.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:37.404657630Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/17xxx/CVE-2026-17566.json",
        "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-17566",
        "https://github.com/pgadmin-org/pgadmin4/issues/10213",
        "https://github.com/pgadmin-org/pgadmin4/commit/1496fabe28c9f825f6bac0f0d000d9d3276322c3",
        "https://github.com/pgadmin-org/pgadmin4"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "cwe_ids": [
          "CWE-115",
          "CWE-78"
        ],
        "cna_assigner": "PostgreSQL",
        "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/17xxx/CVE-2026-17566.json"
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2026-17566",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 504872,
  "published_at": "2026-07-31T16:00:22.738+00:00"
}