GHSA-pq7p-mc74-g65w
GHSA-pq7p-mc74-g65w is a Improper Authentication vulnerability in github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-pq7p-mc74-g65w is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
PocketBase vulnerable to account pre-hijacking via OAuth2 unverfied->verified autolinking upgrade
Real-World Exposure
github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase🐹github.com/pocketbase/pocketbaseReal-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
A pre-hijacking issue was discovered with the OAuth2 autolinking by Alardiians.
In some situations, if an attacker knows the email address of the victim they can create and link an unverified PocketBase user in advance by authenticating with one of the OAuth2 app providers, e.g. "A". When the victim gets invited or decides to sign up to your app on their own with provider "B" (PocketBase OAuth2 auth requires to be with a different provider because we don't allow multiple OAuth2 accounts from the same provider to be associated to a single PocketBase user), the user created previously by the attacker will be autolinked, upgraded to "verified" and its old password reset.
The upgrade flow operates within the expectations but the problem is that I forgot to clear the previous OAuth2 link(s) leaving the attacker to still have access to the initially created user.
Or in other words, the vulnerability is similar to the mixed password + OAuth2 auth pre-hijacking issue that we had in the past but with a slightly different angle.
So with that in mind, and to avoid introducing breaking changes to the auth flows, a new fix was applied that automatically deletes all such pre-existing OAuth2 links on "unverified" to "verified" upgrades.
While the vulnerability requires some prerequisites, it is considered severe and it is strongly recommended to upgrade to v0.37.4 (or to v0.22.42 if you are using an older <v0.23.0 release).
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase | all versions | 0.22.42 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase | ≥ 0.30.0&&< 0.37.4 | 0.37.4 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase. 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/pocketbase/pocketbase to 0.22.42 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-pq7p-mc74-g65w 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-pq7p-mc74-g65w 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-pq7p-mc74-g65w. 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-pq7p-mc74-g65w in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-pq7p-mc74-g65w across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.