CVE-2026-116252 pgAdmin 4: Materialized view refresh redirects its connection through a crafted database name

Description

pgAdmin 4's materialized view refresh passed the target database's name to psql's --dbname argument unchanged. libpq treats a --dbname value containing "=" (or a postgresql:// URI) as a full connection string, whose keywords override the host, port and other settings pgAdmin had supplied. A database whose name is such a string, which any role with CREATEDB can create, therefore redirected the psql process pgAdmin starts for the refresh to a host and port of the creator's choosing, and the connecting user's saved server password was presented to that endpoint. It also let the pgAdmin host be made to open connections to arbitrary addresses. The same weakness was fixed for Backup, Restore, Maintenance and Import/Export Data in earlier releases (CVE-2026-86862); the materialized view refresh was the remaining caller. The fix routes the name through the same database_conninfo() helper, so libpq treats it strictly as a database name. This issue affects pgAdmin 4: before 9.19.

Exploitable remotely over the network, with an ordinary account and without any user action; an attacker can seriously compromise confidentiality, integrity or availability.

Attack vector

Network

Attack complexity

Low

Privileges required

Low

Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

None

Availability

None

Affected products and versions