GHSA-mrww-27vc-gghv is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) SQL Injection vulnerability in github.com/jackc/pgx. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-mrww-27vc-gghv is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
pgx SQL Injection via Protocol Message Size Overflow
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- 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-mrww-27vc-gghv.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/jackc/pgx🐹github.com/jackc/pgx🐹github.com/jackc/pgx/v4🐹github.com/jackc/pgx/v5Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
SQL injection can occur if an attacker can cause a single query or bind message to exceed 4 GB in size. An integer overflow in the calculated message size can cause the one large message to be sent as multiple messages under the attacker's control.
Patches
The problem is resolved in v4.18.2 and v5.5.4.
Workarounds
Reject user input large enough to cause a single query or bind message to exceed 4 GB in size.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/jackc/pgx | all versions | 4.18.2 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/jackc/pgx | ≥ 5.0.0&&< 5.5.4 | 5.5.4 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/jackc/pgx/v4 | all versions | 4.18.2 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/jackc/pgx/v5 | ≥ 5.0.0&&< 5.5.4 | 5.5.4 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/jackc/pgx. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update github.com/jackc/pgx to 4.18.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-mrww-27vc-gghv 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 pinpoints whether GHSA-mrww-27vc-gghv is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-mrww-27vc-gghv. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-mrww-27vc-gghv in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-mrww-27vc-gghv across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.