MariaDB Connector/Node.js: SQL injection through object keys in SET expansion (permitSetMultiParamEntries)GHSA-v6pj-gxxw-phfw
HIGHFix: mariadb-corporation/mariadb-connector-nodejs@144b8f4GHSA-v6pj-gxxw-phfw is a high-severity (CVSS 8.1) 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
- 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-v6pj-gxxw-phfw.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-v6pj-gxxw-phfw by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 394,803 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
Description
With the non-default permitSetMultiParamEntries option enabled, an object passed as a query parameter is expanded into a SET clause, each key becoming a column name. The three code paths implementing that expansion built the backtick-quoted identifier by hand and wrote the key out unescaped, while only the value was escaped.
A key containing a backtick therefore closed the identifier, and the remainder of the key was parsed as SQL. The connector's own identifier escaper (escapeId, which correctly doubles backticks) existed but was not called from any of the three sites. This is an incomplete fix of GitHub issue #252, which corrected escapeId itself in 2023 but left these hand-built call sites unchanged.
Impact
An application that enables permitSetMultiParamEntries and passes an object with attacker-influenced keys into a statement such as conn.query('UPDATE users SET ? WHERE id = ?', [body, id]) allows the caller to write columns the application never intended to expose — a role, balance or password column — and to append arbitrary SQL to the statement, since the injected text is not confined to an assignment.
Exposure requires the option to be enabled: it is off by default, and with it off the object is serialised and escaped as a single string literal, so the key never reaches the SQL grammar. Passing a request body into this API is, however, the ordinary reason to enable the option. An application that enables it is asking for keys to become column names, not for keys to become arbitrary SQL.
Resolution
All three expansion sites now route the key through the identifier escaper, doubling backticks before writing the column name. The feature is unchanged for legitimate keys, including reserved words.
Workarounds
Disable permitSetMultiParamEntries (the default), or validate object keys against an allow-list of column names before passing them to query(), until upgraded.
Credit
Reported by fg0x0.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | mariadb | ≥ 3.2.0&&< 3.2.5 | 3.2.5npm install mariadb@3.2.5 |
| 📦npm | mariadb | ≥ 3.3.0&&< 3.3.4 | 3.3.4npm install mariadb@3.3.4 |
| 📦npm | mariadb | ≥ 3.4.0&&< 3.4.7 | 3.4.7npm install mariadb@3.4.7 |
| 📦npm | mariadb | ≥ 3.5.0-rc.0&&< 3.5.4 | 3.5.4npm install mariadb@3.5.4 |
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 3.2.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-v6pj-gxxw-phfw 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-v6pj-gxxw-phfw in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.