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

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.

Affected packages

Package 	dev-db/phpmyadmin on all architectures
Affected versions 	< 2.6.0_p2
Unaffected versions 	>= 2.6.0_p2

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.

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

    phpMyAdmin 2.6.0_pl2 Release Announcement
    Secunia Advisory SA12813
    CVE-2004-2630