Overview
A high-severity LDAP injection vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-12764, has been discovered in pgAdmin versions 9.9 and earlier. This flaw allows attackers to inject special LDAP characters into the username field during the LDAP authentication process. Successful exploitation can lead to a denial-of-service (DoS) condition on the Directory Controller (DC) or LDAP server due to the excessive processing of crafted LDAP queries.
Technical Details
The vulnerability stems from insufficient input sanitization of the username field when pgAdmin attempts to authenticate users against an LDAP directory. An attacker can insert specially crafted LDAP characters and syntax within the username. When pgAdmin constructs the LDAP query using the unsanitized username, the DC/LDAP server processes the malicious payload. This crafted query can force the server to perform resource-intensive operations, ultimately leading to a denial-of-service condition by consuming excessive CPU or memory.
The attack vector involves the authentication flow of pgAdmin using LDAP. The username field becomes the primary injection point. Due to lack of proper escaping, malicious LDAP syntax within the username becomes part of the LDAP query sent to the server.
CVSS Analysis
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) assigns this vulnerability a score of 7.5, indicating a High severity. The CVSS vector reflects the potential for remote exploitation and the impact on availability. Specific metrics should be consulted when a full CVSS vector is released on the NIST NVD website after publication.
Possible Impact
Exploitation of this vulnerability can result in:
- Denial of Service (DoS): The primary impact is a denial of service on the LDAP server. The injected LDAP code consumes excessive server resources.
- System Instability: The increased load on the LDAP server can lead to general system instability and affect other services relying on the LDAP directory.
- Potential Information Disclosure (Secondary): In some LDAP configurations, crafted queries *could* potentially leak information (although this is not the primary concern and depends on the LDAP setup).
Mitigation & Patch Steps
To mitigate this vulnerability, the following steps are recommended:
- Upgrade pgAdmin: Upgrade to a patched version of pgAdmin that addresses this LDAP injection vulnerability. Versions greater than 9.9 include the necessary fixes. Check the official pgAdmin website for the latest releases.
- Input Sanitization: If upgrading is not immediately feasible, implement robust input sanitization on the username field to prevent LDAP injection. This might require modifying pgAdmin’s source code (not recommended unless you have strong development experience) or implementing a proxy that sanitizes the input.
- Network Segmentation: Limit network access to the LDAP server to only authorized systems.
- Monitor LDAP Server: Monitor the LDAP server for unusual activity and resource consumption.