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From: Noah Misch <noah@leadboat.com>
To: pgsql-committers@lists.postgresql.org
Subject: pgsql: Fix unbounded recursive handling of SSL/GSS in ProcessStartupPac
Date: Mon, 11 May 2026 12:19:38 +0000
Message-ID: <E1wMPbm-0002Wa-0O@gemulon.postgresql.org> (raw)

Fix unbounded recursive handling of SSL/GSS in ProcessStartupPacket()

The handling of SSL and GSS negotiation messages in
ProcessStartupPacket() could cause a recursion of the backend,
ultimately crashing the server as the negotiation attempts were not
tracked across multiple calls processing startup packets.

A malicious client could therefore alternate rejected SSL and GSS
requests indefinitely, each adding a stack frame, until the backend
crashed with a stack overflow, taking down a server.

This commit addresses this issue by modifying ProcessStartupPacket() so
as processed negotiation attempts are tracked, preventing infinite
recursive attempts.  A TAP test is added to check this problem, where
multiple SSL and GSS negotiated attempts are stacked.

Reported-by: Calif.io in collaboration with Claude and Anthropic
Research
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>
Reviewed-by: Daniel Gustafsson <daniel@yesql.se>
Security: CVE-2026-6479
Backpatch-through: 14

Branch
------
REL_17_STABLE

Details
-------
https://git.postgresql.org/pg/commitdiff/32a4ce55ccabe4c1e9b1e45d4efc1e62e69fc754
Author: Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>

Modified Files
--------------
src/backend/tcop/backend_startup.c     | 23 +++++++++-
src/test/Makefile                      |  2 +-
src/test/meson.build                   |  1 +
src/test/postmaster/.gitignore         |  2 +
src/test/postmaster/Makefile           | 23 ++++++++++
src/test/postmaster/README             | 27 +++++++++++
src/test/postmaster/meson.build        | 12 +++++
src/test/postmaster/t/004_negotiate.pl | 82 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
8 files changed, 169 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)



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