Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-12046

CriticalRCE

Published: 19 June 2026

Published
19 June 2026
Modified
23 June 2026
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v4 9.5 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0072 49.2th percentile
Risk Priority 70 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-12046 is a critical-severity Missing Authentication for Critical Function (CWE-306) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 9.5 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 49.2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

Two state-mutating endpoints in pgAdmin 4's SQL Editor blueprint -- DELETE /sqleditor/close/<trans_id> and POST /sqleditor/initialize/sqleditor/update_connection/<sgid>/<sid>/<did> -- were the only routes in the module missing the @pga_login_required decorator. Both reach a pickle.loads sink on session['gridData'][<trans_id>]['command_obj']: the close endpoint via close_sqleditor_session(), and…

more

update_sqleditor_connection via check_transaction_status(). In server mode these endpoints were reachable without any authenticated pgAdmin session. The defect is a missing-authentication-on-critical-function (CWE-306) wrapper around a deserialization-of-untrusted-data sink (CWE-502). Exploiting it for remote code execution requires the attacker to also forge a server-side session file whose gridData entry contains a malicious pickle payload, which in turn requires both (a) knowledge of pgAdmin's Flask SECRET_KEY (no chain to leak it is described here -- the attacker must already possess it) and (b) write access to pgAdmin's sessions/ directory on the host. Neither precondition is granted by this defect on its own. When those preconditions are met from another channel (misconfigured deployment, prior compromise, leaked configuration), the missing auth gate is the final hop that turns an existing partial compromise into unauthenticated code execution in the pgAdmin process -- and, by extension, on the host under whatever account runs pgAdmin. Fix is a one-line @pga_login_required decorator on each of the two endpoints, matching the convention used by every other route in the module. The is_authenticated / MFA chain now runs before the trans_id is dereferenced, so an unauthenticated request is rejected before reaching the deserialization path. The defect is server-mode only. In DESKTOP mode pgAdmin's before_request hook re-authenticates DESKTOP_USER on every request, so no endpoint can be exercised in an unauthenticated state and no auth decorator (or its absence) is meaningful. The accompanying regression test mirrors the attacker's path -- harvests an X-pgA-CSRFToken from GET /login and replays it against both endpoints -- and self-skips outside server mode for that reason; it is wired into the existing server-mode CI workflow alongside the data-isolation tests. This issue affects pgAdmin 4: from 6.9 before 9.16.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1059.006 Python Execution
Adversaries may abuse Python commands and scripts for execution.
Why these techniques?

Missing auth on public endpoints directly enables unauthenticated exploitation of deserialization for RCE (T1190) in a Python web app, leading to command execution via pickle (T1059.006).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

Affected Assets

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-306

Requires established identification and authentication to unlock, mitigating missing authentication for continued system access.

addresses: CWE-306

Requiring identification and rationale for actions allowed without authentication ensures critical functions are not left unprotected by forcing review of authentication requirements.

addresses: CWE-306

Authorizing mobile device connections to organizational systems ensures authentication is performed for this critical access function.

addresses: CWE-306

Guarantees critical functions are protected by mandatory invocation of the access control mechanism.

addresses: CWE-306

Auditing sessions makes it possible to detect access to critical functions without required authentication.

addresses: CWE-306

The assessment process confirms authentication is present and effective for critical functions, preventing exploitation from missing authentication.

addresses: CWE-306

Certification assesses that critical functions have required authentication controls in place.

addresses: CWE-502

Penetration testing supplies malicious serialized objects, detecting unsafe deserialization and supporting corrective actions.

References