# CVE-2026-42198: pgjdbc: Unbounded PBKDF2 iterations in SCRAM authentication allows CPU exhaustion DoS > A malicious server can cause client-side CPU exhaustion in the PostgreSQL JDBC driver during SCRAM authentication, leading to denial of service. - **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`) - **Exploited in the wild:** Not known - **Login needed:** Not needed - **Attackable:** Over the internet - **Victim action needed:** Not needed - **Fix available:** Yes - **Published:** 29 Apr 2026 - **Updated:** 11 Sep 2026 - **Also known as:** ALSA-2026:22304, ALSA-2026:24348, ALSA-2026:25030, BIT-postgresql-jdbc-driver-2026-42198, CLEANSTART-2026-FS84990, CLEANSTART-2026-IB51181, CLEANSTART-2026-YH00671, CLSA-2026-1781092532, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-42198, ECHO-779f-f306-b07f, GHSA-98qh-xjc8-98pq, MINI-2387-5pr4-4v6w, MINI-48gf-h2wj-3pg8, MINI-4fp5-qj83-cwvq, MINI-6mfv-jjmg-6j3v, MINI-7f45-hpp5-mj3c, MINI-8fxw-fmmp-qvww, MINI-g7g5-v656-w4c8, MINI-h2h8-cwqp-vpfp, MINI-j4xr-wmhw-4gcc, MINI-q6qq-g7h7-cj36, MINI-q83v-qg67-6qp4, MINI-r9fx-w7v2-jpwq, MINI-r9ww-w4pp-m2hv, MINI-v3h6-chvc-9p92, MINI-x37v-rj97-cvcr, MINI-xjfq-q2qp-m8vr, OESA-2026-2443, OESA-2026-2444, OESA-2026-2445, OESA-2026-2446, OESA-2026-2501, RHLW-2026-5920e9c5f3ada010, RHSA-2026:22304, RHSA-2026:24348, RHSA-2026:25030, RHSA-2026:52928, RHSA-2026:52929, RHSA-2026:52930, RHSA-2026:52978, RHSA-2026:54532, RHSA-2026:59277, RHSA-2026:59278, RLSA-2026:22304, RLSA-2026:24348, RLSA-2026:25030, ROOT-APP-MAVEN-CVE-2026-42198, SUSE-SU-2026:2028-1, SUSE-SU-2026:22000-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-42198, openSUSE-SU-2026:11001-1, openSUSE-SU-2026:20847-1 ## What is CVE-2026-42198? CVE-2026-42198 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in pgjdbc, published on 29 Apr 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim. ### Official description pgjdbc is an open source postgresql JDBC Driver. From version 42.2.0 to before version 42.7.11, pgjdbc is vulnerable to a client-side denial of service during SCRAM-SHA-256 authentication. A malicious server can instruct the driver to perform SCRAM authentication with a very large iteration count. With a large enough value, the client spends an unbounded amount of CPU time inside PBKDF2 before authentication can fail. A single attempt ties up a CPU core. Repeated or concurrent attempts exhaust client CPU and can wedge connection pools. In affected versions, loginTimeout did not fully mitigate this problem. When loginTimeout expired, the caller could stop waiting, but the worker thread performing the connection attempt could continue running and burning CPU inside the SCRAM PBKDF2 computation. This issue has been patched in version 42.7.11. Weakness: CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling) ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-42198? 3 open source packages ship an affected version, including org.postgresql:postgresql and postgresql-jdbc-driver. It affects 1 product. | Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `org.postgresql:postgresql` | Maven | From 42.2.0 | 42.7.11 | | `org.postgresql:postgresql` | Maven | From 42.2.0 | 42.7.11 | | `postgresql-jdbc-driver` | Bitnami | From 42.2.0 | 42.7.11 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | AlmaLinux:10 | All versions | 42.7.2-1.el10_2.2 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 42.2.14-4.el8_10 | | `postgresql-jdbc-javadoc` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 42.2.14-4.el8_10 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 42.2.28-2.el9_8.2 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:10.2 | All versions | 0:42.7.2-1.el10_2.2 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.14-4.el8_10 | | `postgresql-jdbc-javadoc` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.14-4.el8_10 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.28-2.el9_8.2 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:42.7.1-7.el10_0.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.3-7.el8_4.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc-javadoc` | Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.3-7.el8_4.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.6::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.3-5.el8_6.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc-javadoc` | Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.6::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.3-5.el8_6.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Red Hat:rhel_e4s:8.8::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.14-5.el8_8.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc-javadoc` | Red Hat:rhel_e4s:8.8::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.14-5.el8_8.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Red Hat:rhel_e4s:9.2::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.28-1.el9_2.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Red Hat:rhel_e4s:9.4::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.28-1.el9_4.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.6::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.28-1.el9_6.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Red Hat:rhel_eus_long_life:8.4::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.3-7.el8_4.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc-javadoc` | Red Hat:rhel_eus_long_life:8.4::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.3-7.el8_4.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Red Hat:rhel_eus_long_life:8.6::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.3-5.el8_6.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc-javadoc` | Red Hat:rhel_eus_long_life:8.6::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.3-5.el8_6.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Red Hat:rhel_tus:8.8::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.14-5.el8_8.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc-javadoc` | Red Hat:rhel_tus:8.8::appstream | All versions | 0:42.2.14-5.el8_8.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Rocky Linux:10 | All versions | 0:42.7.2-1.el10_2.2 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Rocky Linux:8 | All versions | 0:42.2.14-4.el8_10 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | Rocky Linux:9 | All versions | 0:42.2.28-2.el9_8.2 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 | All versions | 42.7.7-160000.3.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0 | All versions | 42.7.7-160000.3.1 | | `postgresql-jdbc` | openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 42.7.11-1.1 | Products: Postgresql Postgresql Jdbc Driver. ## How do I fix CVE-2026-42198? Upgrade org.postgresql:postgresql to 42.7.11 or later. ## Is CVE-2026-42198 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-42198 in the wild and no public exploit code. ## Other vulnerabilities in pgjdbc - [CVE-2026-54291](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-54291/): Silent channel-binding authentication downgrade via unsupported certificate algorithms (high 8.2) - [CVE-2025-49146](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49146/): pgjdbc Client Allows Fallback to Insecure Authentication Despite channelBinding=require Configuration (high 8.2) - [CVE-2018-10936](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-10936/): Moderate severity vulnerability that affects org.postgresql:pgjdbc-aggregate (high 8.1) ## Fix prompt for AI coding agents ```text Check this codebase for CVE-2026-42198 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2026-42198 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in pgjdbc, published on 29 Apr 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim. Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-42198 in the wild and no public exploit code. Affected packages and fixed versions: - org.postgresql:postgresql (Maven): affected from 42.2.0; fixed in 42.7.11 - org.postgresql:postgresql (Maven): affected from 42.2.0; fixed in 42.7.11 - postgresql-jdbc-driver (Bitnami): affected from 42.2.0; fixed in 42.7.11 Task: 1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies. 2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it. 3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead. 4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why. 5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing. Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-42198/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-42198/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-42198 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-42198 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-42198 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-42198/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.