Home/CVE/Covert timing channel in comparison of MD5-hashed password in PostgreSQL authentication allows an attacker to recover us
CVE

CVE-2026-6478

Covert timing channel in comparison of MD5-hashed password in PostgreSQL authentication allows an attacker to recover us

Covert timing channel in comparison of MD5-hashed password in PostgreSQL authentication allows an attacker to recover user credentials sufficient to authenticate. This does not affect scram-sha-256 passwords, the default in all supported releases. However, current databases may have MD5-hashed passwords originating in upgrades from PostgreSQL 13 or earlier.

Versions before PostgreSQL 18.4, 17.10, 16.14, 15.18, and 14.23 are affected.

MEDIUM · CVSS 6.5 EPSS 0.00076
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  • SSVC automatable: yes - attacks can be scripted at scale
Sigma rules0 YARA rules0
⬡

Weakness Classification

CWE-385Covert Timing Channel
▤

Affected Products & Versions

5
postgresql< 14.23
postgresql>= 15.0 and < 15.18
postgresql>= 16.0 and < 16.14
postgresql>= 17.0 and < 17.10
postgresql>= 18.0 and < 18.4
▣

Scoring & Timeline

6.5
MEDIUM · CVSS v3.1 · f86ef6dc-4d3a-42ad-8f28-e6d5547a5007
View on NVD
Attack Vector
Network Adjacent Local Physical
Attack Complexity
Low High
Privileges Required
None Low High
User Interaction
None Required
Scope
Unchanged Changed
Confidentiality
None Low High
Integrity
None Low High
Availability
None Low High
Published to NVD14 May 2026 · 02:16 PM
CVSS VectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
SSVC triage · cisa-vulnrichment
Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
SSVC asks the questions that actually drive patch urgency: is it being exploited, can attacks be automated, and how total is the impact.
⚑

Vendor Advisories

17
usnUSN-8294-1
suse-csafSUSE-SU-2026:1999-1
suse-csafSUSE-SU-2026:2000-1
suse-csafSUSE-SU-2026:2001-1
suse-csafSUSE-SU-2026:2007-1
🔗

References & Sources

1
Source URLs (vendor pages, mailing lists, write-ups). Exploit/PoC links are in their own section above to avoid duplication.
https://www.postgresql.org/support/security/CVE-2026-6478/PatchVendor Advisory
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