CVE-2023-25149

TimescaleDB has incorrect access control

HIGH
8.8
CVSS Score
Published: February 14, 2023 at 01:44 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 05:40 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorTimescaledb

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Severity
HIGH8.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.8%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

TimescaleDB, an open-source time-series SQL database, has a privilege escalation vulnerability in versions 2.8.0 through 2.9.2. During installation, TimescaleDB creates a telemetry job that is runs as the installation user. The queries run as part of the telemetry data collection were not run with a locked down `search_path`, allowing malicious users to create functions that would be executed by the telemetry job, leading to privilege escalation. In order to be able to take advantage of this vulnerability, a user would need to be able to create objects in a database and then get a superuser to install TimescaleDB into their database. When TimescaleDB is installed as trusted extension, non-superusers can install the extension without help from a superuser. Version 2.9.3 fixes this issue. As a mitigation, the `search_path` of the user running the telemetry job can be locked down to not include schemas writable by other users. The vulnerability is not exploitable on instances in Timescale Cloud and Managed Service for TimescaleDB due to additional security provisions in place on those platforms.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 2.9.32.8.0 ≤ v ≤ 2.9.2
Affected range stops below 2.9.3, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

8.8HIGHGitHub_M
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-284CWE-269

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