CVE-2026-25544

Impact

When querying JSON or richText fields, user input was directly embedded into SQL without escaping, enabling blind SQL Injection attacks. An unauthenticated attacker could extract sensitive data (emails, password reset tokens) and achieve full account takeover without password cracking.

Users are affected if ALL of these are true:

1. Payload version < v3.73.0
2. Using a Drizzle-based database adapter (@payloadcms/drizzle as dependency):

• @payloadcms/db-postgres
• @payloadcms/db-vercel-postgres
• @payloadcms/db-sqlite
• @payloadcms/db-d1-sqlite

1. At least one accessible collection that has a type: 'json' or type: 'richText' field where access.read returns anything other than false (true or Where constraint)

Users are NOT affected if:

• Using @payloadcms/db-mongodb
• No JSON or richText fields exist in any collection
• All JSON/richText fields have access: { read: () => false }

Patches

Upgrade to Payload v3.73.0 or later.

Workarounds

If a project cannot upgrade immediately, add access: { read: () => false } to all JSON and richText fields as a temporary mitigation.