Unbounded SCRAM iteration count causes CPU exhaustion in PgBouncer
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- High
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-400.
Summary
Missing upper bound on the key derivation iteration count accepted during SCRAM authentication to a backend server in PgBouncer through 1.25.2 allows a malicious or compromised PostgreSQL backend to cause uncontrolled CPU consumption in PgBouncer. The resulting key derivation cannot be interrupted in frontend builds such as PgBouncer. Because PgBouncer serves all clients from a single process, one backend can in this way stop it from serving traffic for every other database and client it is pooling, so the failure of a single backend is not contained.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | PgBouncer | up to 1.25.2 | — | No fix listed | CNA |
- PgBouncer Vendor— Affected up to 1.25.2 Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
Remediation
Red Hat 1 advisory
- RHSA-2026:70698 Released 2026-09-23 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update
- Red Hat Hardened Images pgbouncer-1.26.0-0.1.hum1@aarch64, pgbouncer-1.26.0-0.1.hum1@src, pgbouncer-1.26.0-0.1.hum1@x86_64
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Hardened Images | Fixed | RHSA-2026:70698 |
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-6669
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-58j7-v2vx-r29w
References
Sources
- CVE-2026-6669 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-6669 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-58j7-v2vx-r29w · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-6669 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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