CVE-2026-13744: Snowflake CLI SQL Injection Vulnerability – Patch Guidance

Technical summary

CVE-2026-13744 is a SQL injection vulnerability (CWE-89) in Snowflake CLI arising from improper neutralization of attacker-controlled input across multiple command pathways. An unauthenticated attacker can supply malicious data through repository configurations, project manifests, or specification files that the CLI fails to sanitize before passing to SQL execution contexts. The CVSS 3.1 score of 8.3 (HIGH) reflects a network-accessible attack surface, high impact across confidentiality, integrity, and availability, but elevated attack complexity and required user interaction. No public exploit code or active exploitation in the wild is currently tracked.

Business impact

Successful exploitation could allow attackers to read, modify, or delete sensitive data within a victim's Snowflake instance, depending on the user's role and permissions. In high-privilege scenarios, this could lead to unauthorized access to production data, intellectual property theft, or data destruction. The attack surface is limited to users who process untrusted CLI inputs (e.g., from shared repositories or third-party configurations), so blast radius is contained unless the CLI is used in automated pipelines with broad database access.

Affected systems

Snowflake CLI versions prior to 3.19 are affected. This impacts any user or automation that runs the CLI to manage Snowflake resources, including developers using local machines, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code deployments. Organizations heavily reliant on the Snowflake CLI for deployment and configuration management face higher risk if they process content from untrusted or insufficiently validated sources.

Exploitability

Exploitability is moderate to difficult. An attacker cannot directly exploit this remotely without user interaction—the victim must actively invoke a vulnerable CLI command and process attacker-supplied content. Attack complexity is high, suggesting the attacker needs to craft inputs carefully to bypass parsing or validation logic. However, once the malicious content is in place (e.g., in a shared Git repository or CI/CD artifact), triggering exploitation is straightforward. Supply-chain scenarios—such as a compromised open-source project dependency or a malicious pull request—raise practical exploitability.

Remediation

Upgrade Snowflake CLI to version 3.19 or later immediately. The vendor has provided the patch in this release and there is no workaround for unpatched versions. Users should prioritize this upgrade across all development environments, CI/CD systems, and automation pipelines. Additionally, enforce input validation and code review practices for any CLI configurations or manifest files sourced from external or untrusted origins.

Patch guidance

Snowflake has released version 3.19 as the fixed version. Users should obtain the latest CLI release from the official Snowflake download channels or package repositories (e.g., npm, pip, or platform-specific installers). Verify the integrity and authenticity of the downloaded package before installation. No interim patches or partial updates are available; a full upgrade to 3.19+ is required. After upgrading, test any existing CI/CD pipelines or automation scripts to ensure compatibility.

Detection guidance

Monitor for CLI commands executed with unusual or suspicious manifest, configuration, or repository content—particularly when processing external or newly introduced files. Check for SQL error messages or unexpected database modifications following CLI invocations. In environments using the CLI within CI/CD, log all invocations and their input sources, flagging attempts to pass raw or unsanitized content directly to the CLI. Endpoint detection tools should flag modifications to CLI configuration files by untrusted processes. Snowflake audit logs may show unusual SQL execution patterns if exploitation occurs.

Why prioritize this

This vulnerability merits urgent attention (HIGH severity) because it enables direct SQL injection into production Snowflake databases. The combination of high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact, plus its relevance to infrastructure automation, makes it a top priority for organizations using Snowflake CLI in critical workflows. Although user interaction is required, the prevalence of shared repositories and CI/CD systems increases real-world attack surface. The absence of known public exploits or active KEV listing provides a brief window for patching before weaponization.

Risk score, explained

CVSS 3.1 score of 8.3 (HIGH) reflects a network-accessible attack vector, high impact across all three security properties (confidentiality, integrity, availability), and scope change (the vulnerability affects resources beyond the vulnerable component). The elevated attack complexity and requirement for user interaction prevent a critical rating. The score appropriately weights the threat: serious enough to demand rapid remediation, but not the most severe class of vulnerability.

Frequently asked questions