Gentoo Linux Advisory: phpMyAdmin

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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200410-14

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http://security.gentoo.org/

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Severity: High
Title: phpMyAdmin: Vulnerability in MIME-based transformation
system
Date: October 18, 2004
Bugs: #67409
ID: 200410-14

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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

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:

    # emerge sync
    # emerge -pv ">=dev-db/phpmyadmin-2.6.0_p2"
    # emerge ">=dev-db/phpmyadmin-2.6.0_p2"

References

[ 1 ] phpMyAdmin 2.6.0_pl2 Release Announcement

http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=414281

[ 2 ] Secunia Advisory SA12813

http://secunia.com/advisories/12813/

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the
Gentoo Security Website:

http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200410-14.xml

Concerns?

Security is a primary focus of Gentoo Linux and ensuring the
confidentiality and security of our users machines is of utmost
importance to us. Any security concerns should be addressed to
security@gentoo.org or
alternatively, you may file a bug at http://bugs.gentoo.org.

License

Copyright 2004 Gentoo Foundation, Inc; referenced text belongs
to its owner(s).

The contents of this document are licensed under the Creative
Commons – Attribution / Share Alike license.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0