CVSS 3.1
5.4 mediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:NCVE-2026-16237 PostgreSQL INSERT ... ON CONFLICT can read or modify rows despite auto-updatable view WHERE condition
Medium (5.4). EPSS 0.3% estimated probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.
On this page
Improper protection in PostgreSQL INSERT ... ON CONFLICT on auto-updatable views allows an attacker having INSERT and UPDATE privileges on the view to read and modify every row in the view's base table, via iterated INSERT ... ON CONFLICT DO UPDATE. This bypasses the view's WHERE condition, whether or not the view is a security_barrier view. Versions before PostgreSQL 18.7, 17.12, 16.16, 15.20, and 14.25 are affected.
Severity
- EPSS
- 0.3% estimated probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days; 20th percentile. Scored 2026-11-13. A forecast for this CVE across the internet, not for your own systems.
- CISA's assessment (SSVC)
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial, assessed 2026-11-12. From CISA's Vulnrichment in the CVE List: whether it is exploited, whether exploiting it can be automated, and how much control it gives.
- CWE
- CWE-424 Improper Protection of Alternate Path
- OWASP Top 10
- A01:2025 Broken Access Control
- Published
- Modified
- Assigned by
- PostgreSQL (CNA)
- NVD analysis
- Awaiting analysis
- Record from
- the NVD, synced
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Fix and patched versions
- Debian, Red Hat, Alpine: fixed package versions per release
Linux distributions
| Distribution | Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debian | 12 | postgresql-15 | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-16237 |
| Debian | 13 | postgresql-17 | 17.12-0+deb13u1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-16237 |
| Debian | 14 | postgresql-18 | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-16237 |
| Ubuntu | 20.04:LTS | postgresql-12 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-16237 |
| Ubuntu | 22.04:LTS | postgresql-14 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-16237 |
| Ubuntu | 24.04:LTS | postgresql-16 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-16237 |
| Ubuntu | 26.04:LTS, 26.10 | postgresql-18 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-16237 |
| Ubuntu | Pro:14.04:LTS | postgresql-9.3 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-16237 |
| Ubuntu | Pro:16.04:LTS | postgresql-9.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-16237 |
| Ubuntu | Pro:18.04:LTS | postgresql-10 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-16237 |
| Red Hat | hummingbird:1 | libpq, libpq-devel | 0:18.7-0.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:99821 |
| Alpine | v3.21, v3.22 | postgresql15 | 15.20-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2026-16237 |
| Alpine | v3.21, v3.22, v3.23 and 1 more | postgresql16 | 16.16-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2026-16237 |
| Alpine | v3.21, v3.22, v3.23 and 1 more | postgresql17 | 17.12-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2026-16237 |
| Alpine | v3.23, v3.24 | postgresql18 | 18.7-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2026-16237 |
| Azure Linux | 3 | postgresql | no fix listed | AZL-113792 |
From the distributions' data via OSV.dev: the Debian Security Tracker; Ubuntu Security Notices © Canonical Ltd., CC BY-SA 4.0; Red Hat Security Data © Red Hat, Inc., CC BY 4.0; the Alpine secdb, CC BY-SA 4.0; Microsoft's Azure Linux vulnerability data, MIT. Modified: reformatted and linked to CVE records. Credits. On the distributions' own pages: Debian · Ubuntu · Red Hat · Alpine.
Red Hat
Red Hat rates this Moderate.
This vulnerability is rated as Moderate severity rather than Important because exploitation requires an authenticated attacker who already possesses both insert and modification permissions on a targeted view, limiting the blast radius to environments where auto-updatable views are relied upon as security boundaries. In typical Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployments, PostgreSQL views are not automatically configured with partitioned row-level boundaries, and administrative access is needed to grant the necessary write rights. While security_barrier views are bypassed by this defect when conflict handling queries are repeatedly executed, attackers cannot gain broader system access or affect schemas outside their granted database privileges.
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.
| Product | Package | State | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Hardened Images | libpq | Affected | |
| Red Hat Hardened Images | postgresql17 | Affected | |
| Red Hat Hardened Images | postgresql18 | Affected |
Contains Red Hat Security Data © Red Hat, Inc., licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source: https://access.redhat.com/security/data. Modified: reformatted. Red Hat's page for CVE-2026-16237.
Attack patterns (CAPEC)
- CAPEC-127 Directory Indexing Likelihood: High · Severity: Medium
- CAPEC-554 Functionality Bypass Likelihood: Medium · Severity: High
The attack patterns MITRE's CAPEC relates to this record's weaknesses, as MITRE names them. Credits.