Covert Timing Channel Affecting libpq package, versions [14.2,14.23)[15.3,15.18)[16.8,16.14)
Threat Intelligence
The probability is the direct output of the EPSS model, and conveys an overall sense of the threat of exploitation in the wild. The percentile measures the EPSS probability relative to all known EPSS scores. Note: This data is updated daily, relying on the latest available EPSS model version. Check out the EPSS documentation for more details.
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Test your applications- Snyk IDSNYK-CONAN-LIBPQ-16691375
- published14 May 2026
- disclosed14 May 2026
- creditJoe Conway
Introduced: 14 May 2026
CVE-2026-6478 (opens in a new tab)How to fix?
Upgrade libpq to version 14.23, 15.18, 16.14 or higher.
Overview
Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Covert Timing Channel via the authentication process. An attacker can recover user credentials by exploiting timing differences during MD5-hashed password comparison. This is only exploitable if the database contains MD5-hashed passwords, typically originating from upgrades from earlier versions.
Workaround
This vulnerability can be mitigated by resetting passwords with password_encryption=scram-sha-256.