MariaDB has possible SQL injection in Buffer parameter escaping under big5/gbk/sjis/cp932/gb18030 client charsetsGHSA-g5xc-5w98-jfvm
MEDIUMFix: mariadb-corporation/mariadb-connector-nodejs@0148cadGHSA-g5xc-5w98-jfvm is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) SQL Injection vulnerability in mariadb. A fix is available for mariadb — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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-g5xc-5w98-jfvm.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-g5xc-5w98-jfvm by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,987 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
mariadbnpmDescription
Summary
A SQL injection is possible when the connector escapes Buffer parameters client-side under a multi-byte client character set whose trail-byte range overlaps the ASCII backslash (0x5C): big5, gbk, sjis, cp932, and gb18030. Under these charsets, an attacker-controlled lead byte can absorb the escape byte the connector inserts, leaving the following quote unescaped so it terminates the string literal and injected SQL is parsed.
Details
When binding a Buffer (binary) parameter, the connector escapes the value byte-by-byte, inserting a backslash (0x5C) before quote (0x27) and backslash bytes. This is correct under single-byte and UTF-8–family charsets, but unsafe under client charsets whose multi-byte trail-byte range includes 0x5C.
On the server, the SQL lexer performs multi-byte character recognition (my_ismbchar) before it interprets escape sequences. If character_set_client is one of the affected charsets and the attacker controls a byte the lexer treats as a valid lead byte, the sequence <lead-byte><0x5C> is consumed as a single multi-byte character. The escaping backslash inserted by the connector is swallowed as that character's trail byte, so the following 0x27 is no longer escaped — it closes the string literal, and the remaining bytes are parsed as SQL.
This is the well-known multi-byte escaping bypass (the same class that historically affected addslashes / mysql_real_escape_string under GBK/Big5), here applied to the connector's client-side Buffer escaping path.
Am I affected?
You are affected if all of the following hold:
You use mariadb Connector/Node.js at a version below the patched releases listed below. The connection's client character set is one of big5, gbk, sjis, cp932, or gb18030. This is not the default (the default is utf8mb4). Untrusted data can reach a Buffer-typed query parameter.
Applications using utf8mb4 (or any charset whose trail-byte range does not include 0x5C) are not affected by this vector. Parameters bound through the binary/server-side prepared-statement path are also not affected, because those values are sent out-of-band and are never escaped into the SQL text.
Impact
SQL injection. An attacker able to influence the contents of a Buffer parameter can break out of the intended string literal and inject arbitrary SQL, leading to unauthorized read or modification of data and, depending on the database account's privileges, further compromise.
Patches
Fixed in 3.2.4, 3.3.3, 3.4.6, and 3.5.3. Upgrade to the patched release on your branch:
- 3.5.x → 3.5.3
- 3.4.x → 3.4.6
- 3.3.x → 3.3.3
- 3.2.x and earlier → 3.2.4 (or any newer release)
Workarounds
If you cannot upgrade immediately:
Use server-side prepared statements (execute) so parameters are bound via the binary protocol rather than escaped into the SQL text. Avoid passing untrusted data as Buffer parameters under the affected charsets.
Credit
Reported by Yalguun Tumenkhuu (@fg0x0).
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | mariadb | all versions | 3.2.4npm install mariadb@3.2.4 |
| 📦npm | mariadb | ≥ 3.3.0&&< 3.3.4 | 3.3.4npm install mariadb@3.3.4 |
| 📦npm | mariadb | ≥ 3.4.0&&< 3.4.6 | 3.4.6npm install mariadb@3.4.6 |
| 📦npm | mariadb | ≥ 3.5.0&&< 3.5.3 | 3.5.3npm install mariadb@3.5.3 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for mariadb, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update mariadb to 3.2.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-g5xc-5w98-jfvm is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Until you can upgrade, make sure every query built from user input uses parameterised statements or a prepared-statement API rather than string concatenation, and reduce the database account's privileges so an injected query cannot read or alter data beyond what the feature needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-g5xc-5w98-jfvm in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.