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

http://security.gentoo.org/

Severity:	high
Title:	phpMyAdmin: Vulnerability in MIME-based transformation system
Date:	10/18/2004
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	Architecture(s)
dev-db/phpmyadmin	< 2.6.0_p2	>= 2.6.0_p2	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:

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

References

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 https://bugs.gentoo.org.