Which versions of Amazon Redshift Python Driver are affected by CVE-2026-8838?

The amazon-redshift-python-driver versions prior to 2.1.14 contain an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on any client connecting to a…. A patch is available.

How to fix or mitigate CVE-2026-8838?

Within 24 hours: Inventory all systems and applications using amazon-redshift-python-driver and document current versions in use. Within 7 days: Upgrade all instances to amazon-redshift-python-driver version 2.1.14 or later; prioritize production systems. Within 30 days: Verify patch deployment across all infrastructure and confirm no instances remain on vulnerable versions.

Amazon Redshift Python Driver CVE-2026-8838

Q: What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-8838?

CVE-2026-8838 has a CVSS 4.0 base score of 9.3 (Critical). CVSS vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X. EPSS exploitation probability: 0.1%.

EUVD-2026-30803 CRITICAL

Code Injection (CWE-94)

2026-05-18 AMZN

GHSA-29h4-r29x-hchv

Code Injection Python RCE

9.3

CVSS 4.0 · NVD

Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY

9.3 CRITICAL

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.

CVSS VectorNVD

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Lifecycle Timeline

Source Code Evidence Fetched

May 18, 2026 - 21:30 vuln.today

Analysis Generated

May 18, 2026 - 21:30 vuln.today

CVSS changed

May 18, 2026 - 21:22 NVD

9.8 (CRITICAL) 9.3 (CRITICAL)

Blast Radius

ecosystem impact

† from your stack dependencies † transitive graph · vuln.today resolves 4-path depth

1 pypi packages depend on redshift-connector (1 direct, 0 indirect)

Ecosystem-wide dependent count for version 2.1.14.

DescriptionCVE.org

Unsafe use of Python's eval() on server-received data in the vector_in() function in amazon-redshift-python-driver before 2.1.14 allows a rogue server or man-in-the-middle actor to execute arbitrary code on the client.

To remediate this issue, users should upgrade to version 2.1.14.

AnalysisAI

Remote code execution in the amazon-redshift-python-driver (versions prior to 2.1.14) allows a malicious or compromised Redshift server, or a man-in-the-middle attacker positioned on the network path, to execute arbitrary Python code on any client that connects. The root cause is unsafe use of Python's eval() against untrusted server-supplied data inside the vector_in() function. No public exploit identified at time of analysis, but the CVSS 4.0 base score of 9.3 and PR:N/UI:N vector make this a high-priority client-side supply-chain-style risk.

Technical ContextAI

The driver is the official AWS Python connector (cpe:2.3:a:aws:amazon_redshift_connector_for_python) used by data engineers, ETL pipelines, notebooks, and analytics workloads to communicate with Amazon Redshift clusters over the PostgreSQL wire protocol. The vulnerability is a textbook CWE-94 (Improper Control of Generation of Code, i.e. code injection): the vector_in() type-parsing routine passes server-delivered byte data to Python's built-in eval(), which interprets the input as a Python expression. Because eval() evaluates arbitrary expressions including function calls, any value returned by the server in a column of vector type is sufficient to invoke os.system, subprocess, __import__, or any other callable inside the client's Python process.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch: upgrade amazon-redshift-python-driver (redshift_connector) to version 2.1.14 or later via pip install --upgrade redshift_connector, as published at https://github.com/aws/amazon-redshift-python-driver/releases/tag/v2.1.14 and described in https://aws.amazon.com/security/security-bulletins/2026-033-aws/ and https://github.com/aws/amazon-redshift-python-driver/security/advisories/GHSA-29h4-r29x-hchv. Until the upgrade is rolled out, ensure all client connections use TLS with verified certificates (sslmode=verify-full) to eliminate the man-in-the-middle path, restrict the connector to connect only to known AWS-owned Redshift endpoints via VPC endpoints or strict egress allow-listing, and avoid using the driver against arbitrary or third-party PostgreSQL-protocol-compatible servers; these controls do not address a maliciously crafted column response from a trusted-but-compromised cluster, so patching remains the only complete fix.