Critical security advisoryCriticalFlagged by our vulnerability database: PHP2Shell is on CISA’s exploited list. Most WordPress hosting runs PHP. See if your site is affectedFlagged by our vulnerability database: PHP2Shell is being exploited. DetailsExploited: PHP2Shell. Check your site
HuttenlocherTechnologies
HighCVSS 7.7Other software

CVE-2026-17347

The MASTER_PASSWORD_HOOK setting, introduced in pgAdmin 4 7.2, lets an administrator configure an external command that returns a per-user encryption key, with

The MASTER_PASSWORD_HOOK setting, introduced in pgAdmin 4 7.2, lets an administrator configure an external command that returns a per-user encryption key, with %u in the configured string replaced by the current user's name. The previous implementation substituted the username directly into the command string and executed the result with subprocess.Popen(..., shell=True). Because the username can originate from an external authentication source (OAuth/OIDC claims, Kerberos, webserver auth) rather than a value pgAdmin fully controls, a username containing shell metacharacters (';', '$()', backticks, pipes, '&&', newlines) allowed an authenticated user to execute arbitrary commands as the pgAdmin service account in any deployment where the configured hook string uses %u. Fix tokenises the trusted, administrator-configured hook string into an argument vector first (using shlex in POSIX-quoting mode, with backslash-escaping disabled so Windows-style paths are not mis-parsed), substitutes the untrusted username into the individual argv elements, and executes with shell=False. The username is therefore always confined to a single argv element; any shell metacharacters it contains are in

Description from the National Vulnerability Database, published by f86ef6dc-4d3a-42ad-8f28-e6d5547a5007

What to do: Apply the vendor’s update. The NVD record links to the advisory.

What it means for a small business

If your business uses pgAdmin 4, install the vendor's update. If you're not sure whether you use it, ask whoever manages your computers.

How likely is an attack? The Exploit Prediction Scoring System, run by FIRST (the global association of security response teams), puts the odds of this one being exploited in the next 30 days at 0.72%, higher than 53% of CVEs. That’s low, but low isn’t zero, and the odds jump the day someone publishes an exploit. Scored October 28, 2026, updated daily.

Check your own setup

  • Website check: reads what your site runs from the outside (WordPress version, plugins it can see, old server software) and matches it against this database.
  • Server check: what your web server says about itself, and whether that version has known flaws.

Part of the Huttenlocher Technologies vulnerability database, refreshed twice a day from CISA and the NVD. The title, category and plain-language guidance are ours; check the linked record before acting on a detail. This is general guidance, not a review of your systems.

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