CVE-2026-54291: pgjdbc Failing Open

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-54291 is a high (CVSS 8.2) Failing Open vulnerability in pgjdbc. EPSS estimates a 0.24% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 13.6% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 06-07-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 06-07-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

pgjdbc is an open source postgresql JDBC Driver. In releases 42.7.4 through 42.7.11, channelBinding=require connections can be silently downgraded from SCRAM-SHA-256-PLUS with channel binding to plain SCRAM-SHA-256 without it, losing the man-in-the-middle protection the setting is meant to guarantee. An attacker who can intercept the TLS connection can trigger the downgrade with a certificate whose signature algorithm has no tls-server-end-point channel-binding hash, because the bundled com.ongres.scram:scram-client returns an empty byte array instead of failing and pgJDBC ScramAuthenticator checks only that the server advertised a PLUS mechanism, without rejecting the empty binding or checking that the negotiated mechanism uses channel binding. This issue is fixed in version 42.7.12.

• CWE-636Not Failing Securely ('Failing Open')When the product encounters an error condition or failure, its design requires it to fall back to a state that is less secure than other options that are available, such as selecting the weakest encryption algorithm or using the most permissive access control restrictions.
• CWE-757Selection of Less-Secure Algorithm During Negotiation ('Algorithm Downgrade')A protocol or its implementation supports interaction between multiple actors and allows those actors to negotiate which algorithm should be used as a protection mechanism such as encryption or authentication, but it does not select the strongest algorithm that is available to both parties.