CVE-2026-50737
When applying replicated changes for a row that is missing one or more columns, pglogical evaluates the affected table's default expressions on the subscriber. Because the apply worker runs at a privilege level equivalent to a PostgreSQL superuser in default installations, any function invoked by such a default expression also runs at that privilege. A party acting as the publisher can use this path to cause functions to be executed on the subscriber as superuser, escalating from a role permitted to use pglogical to full superuser. This is a second, independent path to the same superuser escalation tracked under CVE-2026-50736 (the pglogical queue issue). To exploit the issue an attacker must be able to direct a subscription at an endpoint they control. In default installations this requires privileges normally reserved for a superuser, so the issue is most relevant to managed deployments where the ability to create subscriptions has been delegated to non-superuser roles.
What this means
- Exposure
- Exploitable remotely over the network, with an ordinary user account and with no action from the victim. The attack does require particular conditions, which makes it less systematic. It also depends on circumstances the attacker does not control.
- Impact
- An attacker can read sensitive data, modify or destroy data and take the service offline. The impact spreads beyond the vulnerable component into other parts of the system.
- Likelihood
- Its EPSS score stays low: nothing points to imminent exploitation, which is no reason to leave it unpatched.
What to doPatch without waiting for the next scheduled cycle.
Read automatically from the CVSS vector, the weakness type (CWE) and the EPSS score. The technical description above remains the one published by NIST.