Covert timing channel in comparison of MD5-hashed password in PostgreSQL authentication allows an attacker to recover user credentials sufficient to authenticate. This does not affect scram-sha-256 passwords, the default in all supported releases. However, current databases may have MD5-hashed passwords originating in upgrades from PostgreSQL 13 or earlier. Versions before PostgreSQL 18.4, 17.10, 16.14, 15.18, and 14.23 are affected.
CVE-2026-6478
Score 6.5 from GitHub Security Advisory published 2026-05-14. a secondary CVSS source baseline 6.5; sources differ by 0.0.
- Lower severity and no public exploit yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 6.5
- EG Score
- 6.5(medium)
- EG Risk
- 44(Track)EG Risk 44/100SSVC: Track
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computedSeverity65% × 45%Exploitation1% × 40%Automatability100% × 15%Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence. - EPSS PROB
- 1%
- EPSS %ILE
- 43%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
May 14, 2026
Last Modified
July 24, 2026
Advisory Details (1)
Auto-updated May 18, 2026PostgreSQL: CVE-2026-6478: PostgreSQL discloses MD5-hashed passwords via covert timing channel
https://www.postgresql.org/support/security/CVE-2026-6478/Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-6478(20)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
- RHSA-2026:44481Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Update Infrastructure 5.2 security update
- RHSA-2026:44420Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: libpq security update
- RHSA-2026:42555Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: postgresql:13 security update
- RHSA-2026:35880Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: libpq security update
- RHSA-2026:34362Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: postgresql:12 security update
- RHSA-2026:34363Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: postgresql:13 security update
- RHSA-2026:34043Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: postgresql:12 security update
- RHSA-2026:33497Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: postgresql:15 security update
- +12 more
Patch Availability(30)
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(13)
Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.
- Microsoft MSRCCVE-2026-64782026-05-16
PostgreSQL discloses MD5-hashed passwords via covert timing channel
- Red HatRHSA-2026:21182IMPORTANT2026-05-14
RHSA-2026:21182 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2026:22878IMPORTANT2026-05-14
RHSA-2026:22878 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2026:26181IMPORTANT2026-05-14
RHSA-2026:26181 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2026:26203IMPORTANT2026-05-14
RHSA-2026:26203 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2026:26204IMPORTANT2026-05-14
RHSA-2026:26204 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2026:26524IMPORTANT2026-05-14
RHSA-2026:26524 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2026:26525IMPORTANT2026-05-14
RHSA-2026:26525 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2026:26561IMPORTANT2026-05-14
RHSA-2026:26561 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2026:27718IMPORTANT2026-05-14
RHSA-2026:27718 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2026:27738IMPORTANT2026-05-14
RHSA-2026:27738 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2026:27742IMPORTANT2026-05-14
RHSA-2026:27742 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2026:27743IMPORTANT2026-05-14
RHSA-2026:27743 — Important
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 18× in last 7d / 54× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 100 of 143 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-07-27 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-26 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-26 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-26 08:21 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-26 08:21 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-07-26 08:21 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-25 14:18 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-25 14:18 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-24 14:18 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-24 14:18 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 14:18 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 14:18 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 03:22 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 14:08 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-22 14:08 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-20 17:08 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 14:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 02:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-18 10:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 17:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 16:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 02:00 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 02:00 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-13 22:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 06:13 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 06:13 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-12 05:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-11 08:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-11 08:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-09 19:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-09 19:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-08 15:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-08 15:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-07 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-07 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 02:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 02:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-05 02:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-05 02:30 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 15:07 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-29 21:56 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-06-29 21:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-06-29 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 14:07 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-27 22:51 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-06-27 22:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-06-27 03:08 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-26 20:24 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-06-26 20:24 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-06-25 19:18 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-06-25 19:18 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-06-25 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:33 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:33 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-22 14:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-22 14:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 14:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 14:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 01:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 01:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-19 19:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-19 19:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:52 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:52 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-17 17:53 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-17 00:22 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-06-17 00:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-06-16 17:53 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-16 00:05 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-06-16 00:05 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-06-15 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-15 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-14 23:18 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-14 08:52 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-06-14 08:52 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-06-13 23:00 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-13 08:41 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-06-13 08:41 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-06-12 23:12 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-12 23:12 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-12 08:23 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-06-12 08:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-06-11 14:00 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-11 08:10 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-06-11 08:10 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-06-10 22:19 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 13:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 07:57 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-06-10 07:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-06-09 07:28 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-06-09 07:28 UTCGHSA enrichment
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2026-6478?
When was CVE-2026-6478 disclosed?
Is CVE-2026-6478 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-6478?
How do I remediate CVE-2026-6478?
Dependency Blast Radius
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