CVE-2026-55859
### Summary The connector encodes and decodes all character data assuming the connection character set is UTF-8. A server can change character_set_client mid-session to a non-UTF-8 charset, after which the driver and server interpret the same bytes under different encodings, causing silent data corruption and a client/server charset-confusion mismatch. ### Details The driver encodes and decodes all character data on the assumption that the connection character set is UTF-8. The server can, however, announce a change of character_set_client mid-session through the OK-packet session-state-tracking mechanism, for example via a SET NAMES … run by a stored routine or trigger, by server configuration, or by a hostile server. If the new charset is not UTF-8, the driver continues to read and write UTF-8 while the server interprets the same bytes under a different encoding. The result is silent data corruption and a client/server charset-confusion mismatch. Charset confusion of this kind is also the primitive that can defeat byte-wise quoting/escaping when client and server disagree on a multi-byte encoding. ### Am I affected? You are affected if you use mariadb Connector/R2DBC (org.mariadb:r2dbc-mariadb) below 1.4.1 and a connection can be steered, by a hostile or man-in-the-middle server, or by server-side state such as a stored routine, trigger, or configuration — to switch character_set_client to a non-UTF-8 value mid-session. ### Impact Silent data corruption and a client/server encoding mismatch once the connection's charset diverges from UTF-8. Because the mismatch undermines the assumption that quoting/escaping operates on UTF-8 bytes, it belongs to the charset-confusion class that can lead to SQL injection. ### Patches Fixed in 1.4.1. Once the connection is fully initialized, any subsequent charset change to a value that is not utf8 / utf8mb3 / utf8mb4 is rejected: the driver raises R2dbcNonTransientResourceException (SQLState 08000) and closes the connect
Properties
- ghsa_id
- GHSA-5rqc-86vf-g8r2
- severity
- medium
- summary
- org.mariadb:r2dbc-mariadb has Inappropriate Encoding for Output Context and Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output
- cvss_score
- 5.9
- cve_id
- CVE-2026-55859
- cvss_vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
- is_ghsa_only
- false
- ghsa_published
- 2026-08-28T22:49:03Z
- source_url
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-5rqc-86vf-g8r2
- ghsa_updated
- 2026-08-28T22:49:04Z
Related Entities (5)
VULNERABLE_TO (1)
AFFECTS (1)
HAS_WEAKNESS (2)
REPORTED_BY (1)
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