The vulnerability allows a database user with SQL execution permissions to call the load_aws_credentials function with redact_secret disabled, bypassing the database‑wide allow_unredacted_secrets policy and retrieving the full AWS credential chain in plain text. This exposes the access_key_id, secret_access_key, session_token, and region, which can immediately be used to authenticate to AWS services. The weakness is an authorization flaw (CWE‑863).

Vendors and product: DuckDB’s AWS extension (duckdb:duckdb‑aws). Affected systems are any DuckDB installations that have the AWS extension loaded and a working AWS credential chain such as IMDSv2, IRSA, ECS task role or EC2 instance role. The issue applies to any instance where the database user has SQL execution rights and the allow_unredacted_secrets policy is set to false.

The CVSS score of 6.0 indicates a moderate risk. The EPSS score <1% shows that exploitation is considered unlikely, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog. Attackers only need database‑level SQL execution rights, making the attack vector local to the database environment. Once credentials are extracted, the attacker can immediately use them to authenticate with AWS services and potentially compromise the underlying infrastructure.