To pass a server's password to psql and to the utilities pgAdmin 4 runs as background processes, the server manager wrote it into pgAdmin's own process environment: as PGPASSWORD for the PSQL tool, and under a per-process variable for a utility. Nothing removed it afterwards. pgAdmin's environment is shared by every user's requests and copied into every process it starts, so in server mode another user's later PSQL session or utility inherited the password, and libpq used PGPASSWORD for any connection made without a password of its own, letting one user connect with another user's saved password.

The fix puts the password only into the environment built for the process that needs it and starts psql with a copy of pgAdmin's environment instead of the environment itself.

This issue affects pgAdmin 4: before 9.19.

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Fri, 30 Oct 2026 20:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description To pass a server's password to psql and to the utilities pgAdmin 4 runs as background processes, the server manager wrote it into pgAdmin's own process environment: as PGPASSWORD for the PSQL tool, and under a per-process variable for a utility. Nothing removed it afterwards. pgAdmin's environment is shared by every user's requests and copied into every process it starts, so in server mode another user's later PSQL session or utility inherited the password, and libpq used PGPASSWORD for any connection made without a password of its own, letting one user connect with another user's saved password. The fix puts the password only into the environment built for the process that needs it and starts psql with a copy of pgAdmin's environment instead of the environment itself. This issue affects pgAdmin 4: before 9.19.
Title pgAdmin 4: Server passwords are left in pgAdmin's process environment
Weaknesses CWE-214
CWE-526
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 6.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N'}

cvssV4_0

{'score': 7, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:L/UI:P/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:L/SA:N'}


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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: PostgreSQL

Published:

Updated: 2026-10-30T19:55:16.276Z

Reserved: 2026-10-25T16:26:16.419Z

Link: CVE-2026-116246

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-10-30T20:17:04.603

Modified: 2026-10-30T20:17:04.603

Link: CVE-2026-116246

cve-icon Redhat

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cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

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Weaknesses