The PostgreSQL Global Development Group has released an update to all
supported versions of PostgreSQL, including 18.6, 17.11, 16.15, 15.19, and 14.24,
as well as the third beta release of PostgreSQL 19. This release fixes 28
security vulnerabilities and over 110 bugs reported over the last several
months.
This release skips PostgreSQL 18 versions from PostgreSQL 18.4 to 18.6.
18.5 was not shipped due to a regression.
There are three issues that may require you to take extra steps after updating,
which are described in detail below. These issues are related to:
For the full list of changes, please review the release
notes.
PostgreSQL 14 EOL Notice
PostgreSQL 14 will stop receiving fixes on November 12, 2026. If you are
running PostgreSQL 14 in a production environment, we suggest that you make
plans to upgrade to a newer, supported version of PostgreSQL. Please see our
versioning policy for more
information.
Security Issues
The following security vulnerabilities are closed across in this update release.
You can find more details about the vulnerabilities and their affected versions
in the links below:
- CVE-2026-6464: psql COPY FROM STDIN early failure processes data lines as psql commands (CVSS v3.1: 8.1)
- CVE-2026-6469: ALTER TABLE ALTER TYPE resets extended statistics ownership (CVSS v3.1: 3.8)
- CVE-2026-6470: Fails to check type USAGE privilege (CVSS v3.1: 4.3)
- CVE-2026-6471: Logical decoding can dlopen arbitrary file (CVSS v3.1: 7.2)
- CVE-2026-14662: tsvector and tsquery undersize allocations, via integer wraparound (CVSS v3.1: 8.8)
- CVE-2026-14663: pgcrypto, for OpenSSL-disabled ciphers, silently encrypts to and decrypts from cleartext (CVSS v3.1: 6.5)
- CVE-2026-14664: Regexp heap buffer overflow executes arbitrary code (CVSS v3.1: 8.8)
- CVE-2026-14666: Row security caching disregards role modifications (CVSS v3.1: 4.2)
- CVE-2026-14668: ctid type confusion in selectivity estimator discloses derivative of arbitrary read (CVSS v3.1: 8.1)
- CVE-2026-14669: to_char heap buffer overflow executes arbitrary code (CVSS v3.1: 8.8)
- CVE-2026-14670: plperl tied object heap buffer overflow executes arbitrary code (CVSS v3.1: 8.8)
- CVE-2026-14671: refint plan cache type confusion executes arbitrary code (CVSS v3.1: 8.8)
- CVE-2026-14672: Observable response discrepancy with non-default scram_iterations provides user existence oracle (CVSS v3.1: 5.3)
- CVE-2026-14673: amcheck does not clear untrusted search path (CVSS v3.1: 3.8)
- CVE-2026-14676: pg_stat_statements heap buffer overflow executes arbitrary code (CVSS v3.1: 8.8)
- CVE-2026-14677: 32-bit pltcl and plperl undersize allocations, via integer wraparound (CVSS v3.1: 8.8)
- CVE-2026-14678: pg_trgm picksplit reads past end of buffer (CVSS v3.1: 4.3)
- CVE-2026-14679: Stack buffer overflow in argument match writes 0x0 and 0x1 to server memory (CVSS v3.1: 8.2)
- CVE-2026-14680: Type confusion via "internal" arguments (CVSS v3.1: 8.8)
- CVE-2026-14681: Improper enforcement of GSSAPI encryption when coupled with SSL (CVSS v3.1: 4.2)
- CVE-2026-15741: Expression deparse allows SQL injection via EXTRACT argument (CVSS v3.1: 8.8)
- CVE-2026-15742: fuzzystrmatch writes effectively-arbitrary addresses, via integer wraparound (CVSS v3.1: 8.8)
- CVE-2026-16238: Type confusion in pg_restore_attribute_stats() executes arbitrary code (CVSS v3.1: 8.8)
- CVE-2026-16239: Type confusion in cursor CLOSE + DECLARE executes arbitrary code (CVSS v3.1: 8.8)
- CVE-2026-16241: ECPG integer underflow can crash the client (CVSS v3.1: 3.8)
- CVE-2026-18024: ascii() function reads past end of buffer (CVSS v3.1: 4.3)
- CVE-2026-18408: psql \unrestrict lets superuser of pg_dump origin server execute arbitrary code in psql client (CVSS v3.1: 8.8)
- CVE-2026-19385: pg_dump heap buffer overflow executes arbitrary code (CVSS v3.1: 8.8)
Bug Fixes and Improvements
This update fixes over 110 bugs that were reported in the last several
months.
This specific issue only affects PostgreSQL 14, 15, and 16, but we're
highlighting it in the release announcement due to its severity:
- Fix a self-deadlock that could occur while replaying WAL generated by an older
minor version. This regression, introduced in the previous set of minor
releases, could cause a standby server following a primary running an older
minor version to become stuck.
The remainder of issues listed below affect PostgreSQL 18. Many of these issues
also affect other supported versions of PostgreSQL.
- Fix parallel GIN index
builds to correctly update the table's
reltuples value in pg_class.
Previously, a parallel worker could report an uninitialized row count, leaving
reltuples set to a bogus value (including Infinity or NaN). Such a
value can cause autovacuum and autoanalyze to not process the table, and this
situation will not self-correct. If you have any tables with GIN indexes,
we recommend checking that their reltuples values look reasonable after
updating. See the "Updating" section for how to identify and repair affected
tables.
- Several fixes to
btree_gist,
including for NaN handling for float4/float8 that could give wrong
answers for columns containing NaN and correct sorting of bit/bit varying
values during index building. You may need to reindex btree_gist
indexes on float or bit columns after updating. See the "Updating" section.
- Fix an integer overflow in
ltree comparisons.
ltree values containing more than about 14,653 labels could compare
incorrectly, which could present as a corrupt B-tree index. If you use ltree,
you may need to reindex affected indexes after updating. See the "Updating"
section.
- Fix partition
pruning
for
RANGE-partitioned tables so the DEFAULT partition is no longer skipped in
cases where it should be scanned. Previously this could cause rows to be missing
from query results.
- Several fixes for partitioned tables that have foreign-table
partitions, including when run-time partition pruning determined that some
partitions don't need to be scanned, in-flight requests to foreign servers were
not always handled correctly, leading to failures.
- Several fixes to
RETURNING with
OLD and NEW.
- Improve hash join performance when there are multiple join keys and many
NULL values.
- Several fixes to the planner that could produce wrong query results, including
value IN (array) tests where the array might be empty, and COUNT() window
functions that use an EXCLUDE clause or lack ORDER BY.
- Add missing checks for the hashability of equality comparisons on container
types (arrays,
composite types, and
ranges). Without these
checks, the planner could choose a hash-based plan that then failed at execution
with a "could not identify a hash function" error.
- Fix attaching partitions of indexes that are exclusion
constraints,
which also fixes dump/restore of partitioned exclusion constraints.
- Fix
REINDEX
CONCURRENTLY on an
index backing a deferred uniqueness constraint, which could cause false
constraint-violation reports.
- Restore an index-scan optimization that converts a
LIKE or
regular-expression exact-match pattern into an equality index condition when the
index and expression collations differ.
- Several fixes to
jsonpath,
including that the @? and @@ operators now correctly raise an error for an
undefined variable in the path expression. Previously, because these operators
cannot supply variable values, an undefined variable was treated as a JSON
null rather than an error, which could also lead to unbounded memory
consumption.
- Ensure access is blocked to other sessions' temporary tables, which could
lead to silently incorrect results.
- Fix
"no empty local buffer available" errors during temporary table access
when a large effective_io_concurrency
setting could allow a single read stream to consume all local buffers.
- Prevent autovacuum
from processing databases in the wrong order (lowest-priority first instead of
highest).
- Restore
VACUUM's
wraparound failsafe mode to use the full shared buffer pool as intended, which
had slowed down emergency vacuuming.
- Fix possible incorrect decoding of index tuples during GiST and SP-GiST
index-only
scans,
which could emit corrupted data.
- Fix a race condition in conflict detection under
SERIALIZABLE
isolation. A conflict could be missed when examining an initially-empty btree
index, allowing conflicting transactions to commit and breaking serializability.
- Fix WAL logging of operations that clear bits in table visibility
maps. This could
lead to producing incorrect incremental backups or potentially leaving torn-page
writes uncorrected.
- Fix logical
decoding of empty
prepared transactions. A prepared transaction with no decodable changes could
send
COMMIT PREPARED or ROLLBACK PREPARED to the output plugin with no
preceding PREPARE, which breaks replication for the built-in subscriber.
- Several fixes to
libpq,
including ensuring it drains all pending bytes from the SSL or GSS decryption
buffer when reading data, avoiding cases where a client waits for data that has
already arrived.
- Fix
pg_createsubscriber
to clean up objects left on a publisher after failure, including a replication
slot.
- Fix
pg_restore
with --statistics or --statistics-only so that, when combined with other
selective-restore options such as --schema, it restores the expected items,
matching the behavior of pg_dump.
This release also updates time zone data files to tzdata release 2026c, in which
Alberta (America/Edmonton) will be on year-round UTC-06 (effectively, permanent
DST) beginning in November 2026. This release assumes that their TZ abbreviation
will be CST from that time forward (though this could change). It also reflects
that Morocco (Africa/Casablanca) will move to permanent UTC+00, without daylight
saving transitions, on September 20, 2026.
Updating
All PostgreSQL update releases are cumulative. As with other minor releases,
users are not required to dump and reload their database or use pg_upgrade
in order to apply this update release; you may simply stop PostgreSQL and
update its binaries.
If you have any tables with GIN indexes, we recommend checking their reltuples
values after updating. A prior bug in parallel GIN index builds could have left
reltuples set to a bogus value (including Infinity or NaN) that prevents
autovacuum and autoanalyze from ever processing the table. The following query
lists the tables that have a GIN index, along with their current reltuples:
SELECT DISTINCT t.oid::regclass, t.reltuples
FROM pg_class t
JOIN pg_index i ON t.oid = i.indrelid
JOIN pg_class ic ON i.indexrelid = ic.oid
WHERE t.relhasindex AND ic.relam = 2742;
For any table whose reltuples value looks incorrect, run
ANALYZE on it (or
create another index) to reset the value.
If you use btree_gist, you should reindex btree_gist indexes on float4 or
float8 columns that might contain NaN values, as well as btree_gist indexes
on bit or bit varying columns, for example:
REINDEX INDEX your_index_name;
If you use ltree and have btree indexes over ltree values with very many
labels (more than about 14,653), you should
reindex those
indexes, since they may be corrupt, for example:
REINDEX INDEX your_index_name;
Users who have skipped one or more update releases may need to run additional
post-update steps; please see the release notes from earlier versions for
details.
For more details, please see the release notes.
A Note on the PostgreSQL 19 Beta
This release marks the third beta release of PostgreSQL 19.
In the spirit of the open source PostgreSQL community, we strongly encourage you
to test the new features of PostgreSQL 19 on your systems to help us eliminate
bugs and other issues. While we do not advise you to run PostgreSQL 19 Beta 3 in
production environments, we encourage you to find ways to run your typical
application workloads against this beta release.
Your testing and feedback helps the community ensure that PostgreSQL 19
upholds our standards of delivering a stable, reliable release of the
world's most advanced open source relational database. Please read more about
our beta testing process and how
you can contribute:
https://www.postgresql.org/developer/beta/
Upgrading to PostgreSQL 19 Beta 3
To upgrade to PostgreSQL 19 Beta 3 from an earlier version of PostgreSQL,
you will need to use a strategy similar to upgrading between major versions of
PostgreSQL (e.g. pg_upgrade or pg_dump / pg_restore). For more
information, please visit the documentation section on
upgrading.
Changes Since Beta 2
Fixes and changes in PostgreSQL 19 Beta 3 include:
- Revert
GROUP BY ALL.
- Several fixes for the new
FOR PORTION OF temporal table syntax.
- Several fixes for the new logical replication sequence synchronization
feature, including a race involving
REFRESH SEQUENCES.
- Fix an "unexpected logical decoding status change" error that could occur when
logical decoding is activated concurrently.
- Fix issues around ownership changes for subscriptions.
- Fix wrong query results from
postgres_fdw when pushing down an array
comparison such as field = ANY($1) that involves an implicit type coercion.
- Fix a crash during foreign-key checks involving a nullable
UNIQUE constraint.
- Fix
pg_plan_advice parsing of underscores in numeric literals.
- Fix a missing
FORMAT clause when deparsing JSON_ARRAY(query).
Please see the release notes
for a complete list of new and changed features:
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/19/release-19.html
Testing for Bugs & Compatibility
The stability of each PostgreSQL release greatly depends on you, the community,
to test the upcoming version with your workloads and testing tools to find bugs
and regressions before the general availability of PostgreSQL 19. As this is a
Beta, minor changes to database behaviors, feature details, and APIs are still
possible. Your feedback and testing will help determine the final tweaks on the
new features, so please test in the near future. The quality of user testing
helps determine when we can make a final release.
A list of open issues
is publicly available in the PostgreSQL wiki. You can
report bugs using this form on
the PostgreSQL website:
https://www.postgresql.org/account/submitbug/
Links
If you have corrections or suggestions for this release announcement, please send them to the pgsql-www@lists.postgresql.org public mailing list.