Security restrictions bypass in phpMyAdmin

1) Protection Mechanism Failure

EUVDB-ID: #VU22940

Risk: Medium

CVSSv3.1: 5.7 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2017-18264

CWE-ID: CWE-693 - Protection Mechanism Failure

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to bypass certain security restrictions.

The vulnerability exists due to unexpected behavior of the subst() PHP function that returns false when given '' as the first argument in PHP 5.x. A remote attacker can bypass configured "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = false" setting and login under account that has not password set.

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

phpMyAdmin: 4.0.0 - 4.7.0 rc1

External links

http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/97211
http://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/07/msg00006.html
http://www.phpmyadmin.net/security/PMASA-2017-8/

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.