Covert Timing Channel Affecting libpq package, versions [14.2,]


Severity

Recommended
0.0
medium
0
10

CVSS assessment by Snyk's Security Team. Learn more

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.04% (12th percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-CONAN-LIBPQ-16691375
  • published14 May 2026
  • disclosed14 May 2026
  • creditJoe Conway

Introduced: 14 May 2026

NewCVE-2026-6478  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-385  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

A fix was pushed into the master branch but not yet published.

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.

CVSS Base Scores

version 4.0
version 3.1