GHSA-x3wm-hffr-chwm is a critical-severity (CVSS 10) SQL Injection vulnerability in com.amazon.redshift:redshift-jdbc42. A fix is available for com.amazon.redshift:redshift-jdbc42 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Amazon JDBC Driver for Redshift SQL Injection via line comment generation
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.
- 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-x3wm-hffr-chwm.
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-x3wm-hffr-chwm 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 378,567 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
com.amazon.redshift:redshift-jdbc42Real-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
Impact
SQL injection is possible when using the non-default connection property preferQueryMode=simple in combination with application code which has a vulnerable SQL that negates a parameter value.
There is no vulnerability in the driver when using the default, extended query mode. Note that preferQueryMode is not a supported parameter in Redshift JDBC driver, and is inherited code from Postgres JDBC driver. Users who do not override default settings to utilize this unsupported query mode are not affected.
Patch
This issue is patched in driver version 2.1.0.28.
Workarounds
Do not use the connection property preferQueryMode=simple. (NOTE: If you do not explicitly specify a query mode, then you are using the default of extended query mode and are not affected by this issue.)
References
Similar to finding in Postgres JDBC: https://github.com/pgjdbc/pgjdbc/security/advisories/GHSA-24rp-q3w6-vc56
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, we ask that you contact AWS Security via our vulnerability reporting page or directly via email to [email protected]. Please do not create a public GitHub issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | com.amazon.redshift:redshift-jdbc42 | all versions | 2.1.0.28com.amazon.redshift:redshift-jdbc42:2.1.0.28 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for com.amazon.redshift:redshift-jdbc42, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update com.amazon.redshift:redshift-jdbc42 to 2.1.0.28 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-x3wm-hffr-chwm 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-x3wm-hffr-chwm can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-x3wm-hffr-chwm. 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-x3wm-hffr-chwm in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-x3wm-hffr-chwm across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.