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 …

Medium CVSS 6.5

CVECVE-2026-6478

First seen2026-07-21 15:16 UTC

Disclosed2026-05-14 14:16 UTC

Last updated2026-07-21 15:16 UTC

Channel statusauto

Summary

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.

In-depth triage · Auto channel

No in-depth report has been generated yet (DR-003 v2 AI pipeline is under construction).

Affected products

Lint boundary warnings (1)

The following non-blocking warnings were raised during the lint phase of this triage (e.g. reference URLs not yet on the allowlist). They do not affect entry usability and are disclosed for transparency (see DR-002).

REF_URL_NOT_ALLOWLISTED url not in allowlist: https://www.postgresql.org/support/security/CVE-2026-6478/

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 …

Summary

In-depth triage · Auto channel

Affected products

Sources

Original Links

Timeline