Critical severity · published May 28, 2026
CVE-2026-44477
CloudNativePG: Metrics exporter allows privilege escalation to PostgreSQL superuser and OS RCE
9.9
CVSS
0.5%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
CloudNativePG is a platform designed to manage PostgreSQL databases within Kubernetes environments. Prior to 1.29.1 and 1.28.3, the CloudNativePG metrics exporter opens its PostgreSQL connection as the postgres superuser via the pod-local Unix socket, then demotes the session with SET ROLE pg_monitor. SET ROLE changes only current_user; session_user remains postgres. Any SQL expression evaluated inside the scrape session can invoke RESET ROLE to recover real superuser privileges, then use COPY ... TO PROGRAM to spawn an OS-level subprocess as the postgres user inside the primary pod. The READ ONLY transaction flag does not block this; it gates writes to database state, not external processes. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.29.1 and 1.28.3.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Changed
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.5% · higher than 41% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
CL
cloudnative-pg · cloudnative-pg
< 1.28.3; >= 1.29.0, < 1.29.1 · source: vendor
CL
Cloudnativepg · Linuxfoundation
before 1.28.3; 1.29.0 before 1.29.1 · source: NVD
RH
Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4 · Red Hat
All versions, or not specified · source: CISA
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-44477
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-44477
Issue Tracking
https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg/pull/10576
Mitigation
https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg/security/advisories/GHSA-423p-g724-fr39
access.redhat.com
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-44477
bugzilla.redhat.com
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2482763
security.access.redhat.com
https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-44477.json
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