{"document":{"category":"csaf_vex","csaf_version":"2.0","title":"CVE-2026-12045: pgAdmin 4: AI Assistant read-only transaction bypass allows unauthorised writes and remote code execution","publisher":{"category":"vendor","name":"HarborGuard Database","namespace":"https://database.harborguard.co"},"tracking":{"id":"CVE-2026-12045","status":"final","version":"1","initial_release_date":"2026-06-18T23:37:35.182Z","current_release_date":"2026-06-18T23:37:35.182Z","revision_history":[{"date":"2026-06-18T23:37:35.182Z","number":"1","summary":"Initial machine-readable export from HarborGuard."}]},"distribution":{"tlp":{"label":"WHITE"},"text":"Public CVE data; freely redistributable."},"notes":[{"category":"description","text":"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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nDelivery 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.\n\nFix 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.\n\nThis issue affects pgAdmin 4: from 9.13 before 9.16.","title":"CVE description"}],"references":[{"category":"self","summary":"CVE-2026-12045 on HarborGuard Database","url":"https://database.harborguard.co/cve/CVE-2026-12045"},{"category":"external","summary":"CVE Record","url":"https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-12045"},{"category":"external","summary":"github.com","url":"https://github.com/pgadmin-org/pgadmin4/issues/10022"},{"category":"external","summary":"github.com","url":"https://github.com/pgadmin-org/pgadmin4/commit/bf4792444446f0e7ab721d23cbd6bfe6afaa7a8b"}]},"product_tree":{"branches":[{"category":"vendor","name":"pgadmin.org","branches":[{"category":"product_name","name":"pgAdmin 4","branches":[{"category":"product_version_range","name":">=9.13 <9.16","product":{"name":"pgadmin.org pgAdmin 4 >=9.13 <9.16","product_id":"CSAFPID-1","product_identification_helper":{"cpe":"cpe:2.3:a:pgadmin.org:pgadmin_4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"}}}]}]}]},"vulnerabilities":[{"cve":"CVE-2026-12045","title":"pgAdmin 4: AI Assistant read-only transaction bypass allows unauthorised writes and remote code execution","notes":[{"category":"description","text":"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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nDelivery 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.\n\nFix 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.\n\nThis issue affects pgAdmin 4: from 9.13 before 9.16.","title":"CVE description"}],"product_status":{"known_affected":["CSAFPID-1"]},"scores":[{"cvss_v4":{"version":"4.0","vectorString":"CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H","baseScore":9.4,"baseSeverity":"CRITICAL"},"products":["CSAFPID-1"]}],"remediations":[{"category":"vendor_fix","details":"Update to a fixed version: 9.16.","product_ids":["CSAFPID-1"],"url":"https://github.com/pgadmin-org/pgadmin4/commit/bf4792444446f0e7ab721d23cbd6bfe6afaa7a8b"}]}]}