{"id":2594,"date":"2026-09-06T00:04:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T00:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/2026\/09\/06\/postgreshell-postgresql-flaw-replication-code-execution\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T00:04:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T00:04:24","slug":"postgreshell-postgresql-flaw-replication-code-execution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/en\/2026\/09\/06\/postgreshell-postgresql-flaw-replication-code-execution\/","title":{"rendered":"PostGREShell: 12-Year-Old PostgreSQL Flaw Turns Replication Account Into a Backdoor"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"netgu-3893851441\" class=\"netgu-before-content netgu-entity-placement\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6258556257245998\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6258556257245998\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"3494115342\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A PostgreSQL flaw that went unnoticed for roughly twelve years lets attackers turn a plain replication account into full server access. Discovered by Cyera researcher Vladimir Tokarev and dubbed &#8220;PostGREShell&#8221;, CVE-2026-6471 escalates low-privileged replication access into code execution, permanent superuser rights and a persistent backdoor.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">An unchecked plugin name lands straight in dlopen<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The root cause sits in PostgreSQL&#8217;s logical decoding. When a client creates a replication slot, it freely chooses the name of the output plugin. According to the advisory, that name is passed to <code>dlopen()<\/code> &#8211; or to <code>LoadLibrary()<\/code> on Windows &#8211; without any validation. Using path traversal or UNC paths, an attacker can load arbitrary compiled code into the PostgreSQL process, which then runs with the privileges of the <code>postgres<\/code> system account.<\/p><div id=\"netgu-724331256\" class=\"netgu-content netgu-entity-placement\"><aside class=\"deals-top deals-top--compact\">\n\n\t\t\t<h3 class=\"deals-top__title\">Top-Deals<\/h3>\n\t\n\t\t\t<ul class=\"deals-top__list\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li class=\"deals-top__item\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"deals-top__link\" href=\"https:\/\/netguide.io\/deals\/de\/deals\/ugreen-aluminium-tabletstaender-360-drehbar-hoehenverstellbar\/\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img class=\"deals-top__image\" src=\"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/09\/2825012_1-150x150.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"52\" height=\"52\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"deals-top__body\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"deals-top__name\">UGREEN Aluminium Tabletst\u00e4nder | 360\u00b0 Drehbar 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src=\"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/09\/2835837_1-150x150.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"52\" height=\"52\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"deals-top__body\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"deals-top__name\">A Plague Tale Bundle Cloud Version f\u00fcr Nintendo Switch<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"deals-top__meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"deals-top__price\">23.99 \u20ac<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<s>79.99 \u20ac<\/s>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"deals-discount\">-70%<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"deals-top__temperature\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t42\u00b0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li class=\"deals-top__item\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"deals-top__link\" 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is-hot\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t102\u00b0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li class=\"deals-top__item\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"deals-top__link\" href=\"https:\/\/netguide.io\/deals\/de\/deals\/orico-bluetooth-lautsprecher-bg01-farbenfroh-fuer-1609e\/\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img class=\"deals-top__image\" src=\"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/09\/b0gyqztlt6-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"52\" height=\"52\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"deals-top__body\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"deals-top__name\">ORICO Bluetooth Lautsprecher BG01 \u2013 Farbenfroh f\u00fcr 16,09\u20ac<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"deals-top__meta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"deals-top__price\">16.09 \u20ac<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<s>40.00 \u20ac<\/s>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"deals-discount\">-60%<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"deals-top__temperature\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t40\u00b0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"deals-top__more\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/netguide.io\/deals\/\">Alle Deals ansehen \u2192<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The prerequisite matters: an attacker needs an account carrying the REPLICATION attribute, not superuser rights, and the server must run with <code>wal_level = logical<\/code>. On Windows the attack is fully remote over SMB, on Linux it can trigger via automatic NFS mounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Superuser via catalog manipulation and persistence<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The injected code can directly manipulate the internal <code>pg_authid<\/code> table to grant itself superuser status. For persistence, Cyera describes rewriting <code>pg_hba.conf<\/code>, registering in <code>shared_preload_libraries<\/code> and repeatedly re-applying privileges. A hunt on VirusTotal already surfaced 114 malicious PostgreSQL plugins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Affected versions and mitigations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every release from 9.4 through 18 is affected; the flaw, rated CVSS 7.2, is fixed in 18.6, 17.11, 16.15, 15.19 and 14.24. Administrators should patch promptly, strip the REPLICATION attribute from accounts that do not need it, restrict replication entries in <code>pg_hba.conf<\/code> to known addresses, and block outbound SMB (port 445) and NFS (port 2049) traffic from database servers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sources: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cyera.com\/research\/postgreshell-the-database-powering-much-of-the-internet-had-an-open-door-for-12-years\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cyera Research<\/a> &middot; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.securityweek.com\/12-year-old-postgresql-vulnerability-enables-database-server-takeover\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SecurityWeek<\/a> &middot; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postgresql.org\/support\/security\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PostgreSQL Security<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"netgu-1241504006\" class=\"netgu-after-content netgu-entity-placement\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6258556257245998\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6258556257245998\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"4559785002\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CVE-2026-6471 flaw turns a plain replication account into code execution, permanent superuser rights and a persistent database backdoor. Patches are already available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netguide.io\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}