Listen to this Post
How the mentioned CVE works:
The vulnerability is in the PLAIN restore meta-command filter added to pgAdmin to fix CVE-2025-12762. This filter uses a function called has_meta_commands() that scans raw bytes of SQL files with a regular expression to detect dangerous meta-commands like ! which could execute system commands. However, the regex does not ignore leading special byte sequences such as the UTF-8 Byte Order Mark (BOM: EF BB BF). When a SQL file begins with a BOM, the filter fails to recognize meta-commands because the bytes are not treated as ignorable. During a restore operation, pgAdmin passes the file to psql using the –file option. Psql automatically strips the BOM bytes before processing, so any hidden meta-commands are executed. This allows attackers to craft malicious SQL files that bypass the filter, leading to remote command execution on the server hosting pgAdmin. The issue stems from the byte-level regex matching without accounting for common file encodings, making restore functions unsafe.
Platform: pgAdmin4
Version: Not specified
Vulnerability: Meta-Command Bypass
Severity: Critical
Date: Dec 11 2025
Prediction: Patch expected soon
What Undercode Say:
Analytics
!/bin/bash
Create malicious SQL file with UTF-8 BOM and meta-command
echo -ne ‘\xEF\xBB\xBF\\! ls /’ > exploit.sql
Simulate pgAdmin restore triggering psql
psql –file=exploit.sql
Check filter detection (example)
python3 -c “import re; data=open(‘exploit.sql’,’rb’).read(); print(‘Meta-command found:’ if re.search(rb’\\\!’, data) else ‘Bypassed’)”
How Exploit:
Craft SQL file with UTF-8 BOM prefixing ! commands. Upload via pgAdmin restore. Psql executes commands after stripping BOM.
Protection from this CVE
Update pgAdmin immediately. Sanitize restore inputs. Implement BOM-aware filtering.
Impact:
Remote code execution. Compromised database server. Unauthorized system access.
🎯Let’s Practice Exploiting & Learn Patching For Free:
Sources:
Reported By: github.com
Extra Source Hub:
Undercode
