CVE-2022-21724: Unchecked Class Instantiation when providing Plugin Classes

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 3.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2022-02-02 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-665

Description

pgjdbc is the offical PostgreSQL JDBC Driver. A security hole was found in the jdbc driver for postgresql database while doing security research. The system using the postgresql library will be attacked when attacker control the jdbc url or properties. pgjdbc instantiates plugin instances based on class names provided via `authenticationPluginClassName`, `sslhostnameverifier`, `socketFactory`, `sslfactory`, `sslpasswordcallback` connection properties. However, the driver did not verify if the class implements the expected interface before instantiating the class. This can lead to code execution loaded via arbitrary classes. Users using plugins are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

Affected products

Debian Linux: 9.0, 10.0, 11.0
Fedoraproject Fedora: 35
Postgresql Jdbc Driver: before 42.2.25; from 42.3.0 before 42.3.2; 42.3.2-rc1 — fixed in 42.2.25, 42.3.2
quarkusio quarkus: before 2.7.2 — fixed in 2.7.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Postgresql Jdbc Driver 42.2.25, 42.3.2; quarkusio quarkus 2.7.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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