CVE-2025-12764 identifies an LDAP injection vulnerability in pgAdmin 4 versions up to 9.9, a popular open-source administration and management tool for PostgreSQL databases. The vulnerability arises from improper handling of user-supplied input in the LDAP authentication mechanism. Specifically, attackers can inject special LDAP characters into the username field, which leads to the construction of malicious LDAP queries. These malformed queries cause the LDAP server and client to process an unusually large amount of data, effectively resulting in a denial-of-service (DoS) attack by exhausting resources. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-90 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an LDAP Query). The CVSS v3.1 base score is 7.5 (high), reflecting the network attack vector, low attack complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction, and an impact limited to availability. While no exploits have been observed in the wild yet, the flaw poses a significant risk to systems relying on LDAP authentication via pgAdmin 4. The lack of patches at the time of publication necessitates immediate defensive measures to prevent exploitation. The vulnerability does not compromise confidentiality or integrity but can disrupt database administration workflows and potentially impact dependent services.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-12764 is the potential denial-of-service of LDAP authentication services used by pgAdmin 4. This can lead to unavailability of database management interfaces, delaying critical administrative tasks and potentially causing operational disruptions. Organizations with large-scale PostgreSQL deployments that integrate LDAP for centralized authentication are particularly vulnerable. Disruption in database administration can cascade into broader IT service interruptions, affecting business continuity. Additionally, if LDAP servers are overwhelmed, other services relying on LDAP for authentication may also experience degraded performance or outages. This is especially critical for sectors such as finance, healthcare, and government, where database availability and integrity of authentication services are paramount. The vulnerability’s ease of exploitation and network accessibility increase the risk of targeted attacks or opportunistic scanning by threat actors.

To mitigate CVE-2025-12764, organizations should implement strict input validation and sanitization on all LDAP authentication inputs within pgAdmin 4 to neutralize special LDAP characters before query construction. Network-level protections such as rate limiting and anomaly detection on LDAP traffic can help identify and block abnormal query patterns indicative of injection attempts. Monitoring LDAP server performance metrics and logs for unusual spikes in processing or query volume is essential for early detection. Until an official patch is released by pgadmin.org, consider temporarily disabling LDAP authentication in pgAdmin 4 or restricting access to trusted networks only. Employing web application firewalls (WAFs) with LDAP injection detection capabilities can provide an additional security layer. Finally, maintain up-to-date backups and incident response plans to quickly recover from potential DoS incidents.