---
id: "CVE-2026-116246"
kind: "vulnerability"
aliases: ["CVE-2026-116246"]
title: "pgAdmin 4: saved database passwords leak between users in server mode"
severity: "high"
cvss: 7.0
epss: null
exploited: false
status: "open"
category: "package"
products: []
ecosystems: []
tags: ["package", "pgadmin", "postgresql", "self-hosted"]
not_affected_if: ["desktop-mode", "single-user", "version-9.19-or-later"]
published_at: "2026-10-30T20:17:04+00:00"
first_seen_at: "2026-10-30T20:25:37+00:00"
updated_at: "2026-10-30T20:26:41+00:00"
sources: [{"source": "nvd", "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-116246", "first_seen_at": "2026-10-30T20:25:37+00:00"}]
---

# pgAdmin 4: saved database passwords leak between users in server mode

pgAdmin 4 wrote a server's saved password into its shared process environment and never removed it, so later sessions and tools could inherit it. In server mode, one user can connect to a database using another user's saved password.

_Summary, check and fix written by a model from the sources; labelled as such._

## How to check

- Check the installed pgAdmin 4 version; the sources say versions before `9.19` are affected.
- Check whether pgAdmin 4 runs in server mode with multiple users sharing one instance.

## Fix

- pgAdmin 4: upgrade to `9.19` or later.

## Timeline

- 2026-10-30T20:25:37+00:00 nvd https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-116246

## From the sources

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.

---

_Free to read at a human pace. An API with keys and an MCP server are in preparation; early access: hello@infrastack.ai_