Gentoo Linux Security Advisory GLSA 200410-14
Severity: High
Title: phpMyAdmin: Vulnerability in MIME-based transformation
system
Date: October 18, 2004
Bugs: #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 | Vulnerable | Unaffected |
| 1 dev-db/phpmyadmin | < 2.6.0_p2 | >= 2.6.0_p2 |
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.