[ GLSA 200410-14 ] phpMyAdmin: Vulnerability in MIME-based transformation system

[GLSA]

Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Title: phpMyAdmin: Vulnerability in MIME-based transformation system (GLSA 200410-14)
Severity: high
Exploitable: remote
Date: October 18, 2004
Updated: May 22, 2006
Bug(s): #67409
ID: 200410-14

Synopsis

A vulnerability has been found in the MIME-based transformation system of phpMyAdmin, which may allow remote execution of arbitrary commands if PHP's "safe mode" is disabled.

Background

phpMyAdmin is a popular web-based MySQL administration tool written in PHP. It allows users to browse and administer a MySQL database from a web-browser. Transformations are a phpMyAdmin feature allowing plug-ins to rewrite the contents of any column seen in phpMyAdmin's Browsing mode, including using insertion of PHP or JavaScript code.

Affected Packages

Package: dev-db/phpmyadmin
Vulnerable: < 2.6.0_p2
Unaffected: >= 2.6.0_p2
Architectures: All supported architectures


Description

A defect was found in phpMyAdmin's MIME-based transformation system, when used with "external" transformations.

Impact

A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary commands on the server with the rights of the HTTP server user.

Workaround

Enabling PHP safe mode ("safe_mode = On" in php.ini) may serve as a temporary workaround.

Resolution

All phpMyAdmin users should upgrade to the latest version: