GLSA 200402-05: phpMyAdmin < 2.5.6-rc1: possible attack against export.php

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	normal
Title:	phpMyAdmin < 2.5.6-rc1: possible attack against export.php
Date:	02/17/2004
Bugs:	#40268
ID:	200402-05

Synopsis

A vulnerability in phpMyAdmin which was not properly verifying user generated input could lead to a directory traversal attack.

Background

phpMyAdmin is a tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL databased over the Web.

Affected packages

Package	Vulnerable	Unaffected	Architecture(s)
dev-db/phpmyadmin	<= 2.5.5_p1	>= 2.5.6_rc1	All supported architectures

Description

One component of the phpMyAdmin software package (export.php) does not properly verify input that is passed to it from a remote user. Since the input is used to include other files, it is possible to launch a directory traversal attack.

Impact

Private information could be gleaned from the remote server if an attacker uses a malformed URL such as http://phpmyadmin.example.com/export.php?what=../../../[existing_file]

In this scenario, the script does not sanitize the "what" argument passed to it, allowing directory traversal attacks to take place, disclosing the contents of files if the file is readable as the web-server user.

Workaround

The workaround is to either patch the export.php file using the referenced CVS patch or upgrade the software via Portage.

Resolution

Users are encouraged to upgrade to phpMyAdmin-2.5.6_rc1:

    # emerge sync
    # emerge -pv ">=dev-db/phpmyadmin-2.5.6_rc1"
    # emerge ">=dev-db/phpmyadmin-2.5.6_rc1"
    # emerge clean

References

CVS Patch

Availability

This GLSA and any updates to it are available for viewing at the Gentoo Security Website: http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200402-05.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 https://bugs.gentoo.org.