phpMyAdmin Designer Feature SQL Injection Vulnerability [CVE-2019-6798]

CVE Number – CVE-2019-6798

A vulnerability in the Designer feature of phpMyAdmin could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to conduct an SQL injection attack on a targeted system.

The vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of username requests by the Designer feature of the affected software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a request that submits a malicious username to the affected application. An exploit could allow the attacker to conduct an SQL injection attack, which the attacker could use to access or modify sensitive information, or cause a denial of service (DoS) condition by deleting sensitive information from the backend database.phpMyAdmin has confirmed the vulnerability and released software updates.

Analysis

• To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must send a request that submits a malicious username to the affected application on a targeted system. This access requirement may reduce the likelihood of a successful exploit.

Safeguards

• Administrators are advised to apply the appropriate updates.
  
  Administrators are advised to allow only trusted users to have network access.
  
  Administrators are advised to run both firewall and antivirus applications to minimize the potential of inbound and outbound threats.
  
  Administrators may consider using IP-based access control lists (ACLs) to allow only trusted systems to access the affected systems.
  
  Administrators can help protect affected systems from external attacks by using a solid firewall strategy.
  
  Administrators are advised to monitor affected systems.

Vendor Announcements

• phpMyAdmin has released a security advisory at the following link: PMASA-2019-2

Fixed Software

• phpMyAdmin has released software updates at the following link: phpMyAdmin 4.8.5