pgAdmin 4 has deserialization of untrusted data in its FileBackedSessionManagerGHSA-4rhg-h8f2-v4jm
HIGHFix: pgadmin-org/pgadmin4@30a8903GHSA-4rhg-h8f2-v4jm is a high-severity (CVSS 7) Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in pgadmin4. A fix is available for pgadmin4 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-4rhg-h8f2-v4jm.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
pgadmin4Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Deserialization of untrusted data (CWE-502) in pgAdmin 4 FileBackedSessionManager.
The session manager performed unsafe deserialization of session-file contents (using Python's standard object-serialization module) before performing any HMAC integrity check. Any file dropped into the sessions directory was deserialized unconditionally. An authenticated user with write access to the sessions directory (whether by misconfiguration or in combination with another path-traversal flaw) could plant a crafted serialized payload to achieve operating-system level remote code execution under the pgAdmin process identity.
Fix prepends a 64-byte hex SHA-256 HMAC over the session body, computed with SECRET_KEY, and verifies it via hmac.compare_digest before any deserialization. The check is raised (rather than asserted) on empty SECRET_KEY so it is not stripped under -O.
This issue affects pgAdmin 4: before 9.15.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | pgadmin4 | all versions | 9.15pip install --upgrade 'pgadmin4==9.15' |
Affected Products
pgadmin 4pgadminDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for pgadmin4, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update pgadmin4 to 9.15 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-4rhg-h8f2-v4jm is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Do not deserialise data from untrusted sources: where the format allows it, restrict deserialisation to an explicit allowlist of expected types, and prefer a data-only format (JSON, Protobuf) over one that can reconstruct arbitrary objects until you can upgrade.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-4rhg-h8f2-v4jm in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.