GHSA-7hpq-3g6w-pvhf is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) CWE-426 vulnerability in net.snowflake:snowflake-jdbc. A fix is available for net.snowflake:snowflake-jdbc — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Snowflake JDBC allows an untrusted search path on Windows
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-7hpq-3g6w-pvhf.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-7hpq-3g6w-pvhf plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 379,145 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
net.snowflake:snowflake-jdbcReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Issue
Snowflake discovered and remediated a vulnerability in the Snowflake JDBC Driver. When the EXTERNALBROWSER authentication method is used on Windows, an attacker with write access to a directory in the %PATH% can escalate their privileges to the user that runs the vulnerable JDBC Driver version.
This vulnerability affects versions 3.2.3 through 3.21.0 on Windows. Snowflake fixed the issue in version 3.22.0.
Vulnerability Details
When the EXTERNALBROWSER authentication method is selected, the Snowflake JDBC Driver on non-macOS operating systems tries to open the SSO URL using xdg-open. Because xdg-open is a Linux program that doesn’t exist in a default Windows installation, a sufficiently privileged attacker could place a malicious executable in one of the directories on the %PATH% and achieve local privilege escalation to the user running the JDBC Driver.
Solution
Snowflake released version 3.22.0 of the Snowflake JDBC Driver, which fixes this issue. We recommend users upgrade to version 3.22.0.
Additional Information
If you discover a security vulnerability in one of our products or websites, please report the issue to HackerOne. For more information, please see our Vulnerability Disclosure Policy.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | net.snowflake:snowflake-jdbc | ≥ 3.2.3&&< 3.22.0 | 3.22.0net.snowflake:snowflake-jdbc:3.22.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for net.snowflake:snowflake-jdbc, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update net.snowflake:snowflake-jdbc to 3.22.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-7hpq-3g6w-pvhf is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-7hpq-3g6w-pvhf can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-7hpq-3g6w-pvhf. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-7hpq-3g6w-pvhf in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-7hpq-3g6w-pvhf across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.