Executive Summary

CVE‑2026‑14663 exposes a flaw in PostgreSQL’s pgcrypto extension where disabled OpenSSL ciphers cause ciphertext to be recoverable in cleartext by observing the faulty ciphertext. Even with an incorrect key, decryption succeeds, breaking the Modification Detection Code and allowing attackers to read or tamper with encrypted data. Versions prior to PostgreSQL 18.6, 17.11, 16.15, 15.19, 14.24 are vulnerable. The vulnerability can lead to data confidentiality and integrity breaches in any application that relies on pgcrypto for encryption.

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Authoritative CVE Metadata - CVSS Base Score: 6.5 (MEDIUM) - Published: 2026-08-13T13:17:43.700 - Last Modified: 2026-08-29T23:17:11.530

Original Description: Cleartext storage in PostgreSQL pgcrypto disabled ciphers allows a user to recover cleartext, via direct observation of the faulty ciphertext. The OpenSSL version and OpenSSL configuration determine the disabled ciphers. If the application accepts encrypted data as input, decryption will succeed even with the wrong key. This in turn loses the modest protection from the Modification Detection Code (MDC). Affected functions are pgp_sym_encrypt, pgp_sym_decrypt, pgp_pub_encrypt, pgp_pub_decrypt, pgp_sym_encrypt_bytea, pgp_sym_decrypt_bytea, pgp_pub_encrypt_bytea, and pgp_pub_decrypt_bytea. Versions before PostgreSQL 18.6, 17.11, 16.15, 15.19, and 14.24 are affected.

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