phpMyAdmin preg_replace from_prefix sanitization vulnerability

Added: 05/20/2013
CVE: CVE-2013-3238
BID: 59460
OSVDB: 92793

Background

phpMyAdmin is a free software tool, written in PHP, designed to handle the administration of MySQL over the Web.

Problem

phpMyAdmin before 3.5.8.1 is vulnerable to code injection as a result of failure to sanitize input passed via the **from_prefix** parameter passed to **preg_replace()** in **libraries/mult_submits.inc.php**. As a result, an authenticated remote attacker could potentially execute arbitrary code.

Resolution

Upgrade to phpMyAdmin 3.5.8.1 or newer.

References

<http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/security/PMASA-2013-2.php&gt;

Limitations

This exploit was tested against phpMyAdmin Devel Team phpMyAdmin 3.5.8 on CentOS 6 (with Exec-Shield Enabled).

Netcat (nc) must be installed on the target.

Exploit requires a valid path to phpMyAdmin and valid user credentials for phpMyAdmin’s web interface.

Only phpMyAdmin running on a PHP version before 5.4.7 is vulnerable. Newer PHP versions will generate a warning.

Platforms

Linux