Quantum Secular Labs / Blog / Advisories

CVE-2016-6620: Phpmyadmin: Code execution

CVE-2016-6620 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.0 base score of 9.8 and affects Phpmyadmin. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication, without any user interaction. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available.

Vulnerability description

An issue was discovered in phpMyAdmin. Some data is passed to the PHP unserialize() function without verification that it's valid serialized data. The unserialization can result in code execution because of the interaction with object instantiation and autoloading. All 4.6.x versions (prior to 4.6.4), 4.4.x versions (prior to 4.4.15.8), and 4.0.x versions (prior to 4.0.10.17) are affected.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.0 9.8: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
  • Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
  • Privileges required: None. No account or prior access is needed.
  • User interaction: None. No action from any user is needed.
  • Scope: Unchanged. Impact stays within the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
  • Integrity impact: High. Total loss of integrity; data or system state can be fully modified.
  • Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Underlying weakness

CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data

The product deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently ensuring that the resulting data will be valid.

Affected products

  • Phpmyadmin: 4.6.0; 4.6.1; 4.6.2; 4.6.3; 4.0.0; 4.0.1; 4.0.2; 4.0.3; 4.0.4; 4.0.4.1; 4.0.4.2; 4.0.5

References