phpMyAdminApplication

CVE-2005-4450

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v2.0 Published 2005-12-21
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in phpMyAdmin 2.7.0 allows remote attackers to perform unauthorized actions as a logged-in user via a link or IMG tag to server_privileges.php, as demonstrated using the dbname and checkprivs parameters. NOTE: the provenance of this issue is unknown, although third parties imply that it is related to the disclosure of CVE-2005-4349, which was labeled as SQL injection but disputed.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in phpMyAdmin 2.7.0 allows remote attackers to perform unauthorized privileged actions by tricking authenticated users into visiting malicious links or loading crafted IMG tags that target server_privileges.php with manipulated dbname and checkprivs parameters.

MitigationImplement anti-CSRF tokens (synchronizer token pattern) in all state-changing forms and validate the token server-side for server_privileges.php and throughout the application.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
phpMyAdminApplication
Affected:= 2.7.0_pl1

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify phpMyAdmin version
    Check the version file or header in your phpMyAdmin installation. Common locations: check the top of libraries/defines.php, or access /changelog.php, or check the footer of any phpMyAdmin page for the version number.
    Affected if The installed version is exactly 2.7.0_pl1 (not newer or older)
  2. Verify server_privileges.php exists
    Locate the file server_privileges.php in the phpMyAdmin root directory or check if it is accessible via the web server.
    Affected if The file server_privileges.php exists and is publicly accessible without additional authentication beyond phpMyAdmin login
  3. Check for anti-CSRF token implementation
    Inspect the source code of server_privileges.php and surrounding forms for the presence of a token validation mechanism. Look for token generation (such as random string creation) and token verification (such as comparison against session or server-stored values).
    Affected if No token generation or validation code is found in server_privileges.php or in the forms that submit to it
  4. Inspect form submissions for token field
    View the HTML source of phpMyAdmin pages that interact with server_privileges.php (particularly those handling dbname and checkprivs parameters). Look for hidden input fields containing tokens or unique identifiers.
    Affected if Forms lack hidden token fields and submit directly without any anti-CSRF token parameter

You are affected if phpMyAdmin version is 2.7.0_pl1 and server_privileges.php is accessible without anti-CSRF token protection in place.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement anti-CSRF tokens (synchronizer token pattern) in all state-changing forms and validate the token server-side for server_privileges.php and throughout the application.

Fix this in phpMyAdmin Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
21.0 hours of engineering $3,680
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2005-4450 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2005-4450 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data