phpMyAdmin CSRF Vulnerability Allows An Attacker to Deleting Records From Database

A new Critical CSRF Vulnerability discovered in widely used phpMyAdmin open source admin tool allows an attacker perform harmful database operation such as DROP TABLE With A Single Click, Deleting Records in Database.

CSRF Vulnerability is one of the critical web application vulnerability that is listed in OWASP Top 10 vulnerability since 2013.

phpMyAdmin is a free and open source administration tool for MySQL and MariaDB. As a portable web application written primarily in PHP, it has become one of the most popular MySQL administration tools, especially for web hosting providers using cPanel.

This phpMyAdmin vulnerability leads to trick database admin performing database operations like DROP TABLE using CSRF.

Also Read:  OWASP TOP 10 – 2017 Released After Four years – Critical Web Application Security Risks

“According to OWASP – A CSRF attack forces a logged-on victim’s browser to send a forged HTTP request, including the victim’s session cookie and any other automatically included authentication information, to a vulnerable web application. This allows the attacker to force the victim’s browser to generate requests the vulnerable application thinks are legitimate requests from the victim.”

phpMyAdmin usually performing database operations such as DROP TABLE table_name. so admin should protect against CSRF attacks.

Reseracher said, In this case,  it is possible for an attacker to trick a database admin into clicking a button and perform a database query of the attacker’s choice.

“URL that performing database operation that saved in browser history  If a user executes a query on the database by clicking insert, DROP etc. buttons, the URL will contain database name and table name.”

This vulnerability also discloses the sensitive information with the URL is stored at various places such as browser history, SIEM logs, Firewall Logs, ISP Logs etc.

This critical vulnerability has been reported to  phpMyAdmin team and users urged to Upgrade phpMyAdmin 4.7.7