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PhpliteadminApplication

CVE-2018-10362

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-04-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 1.9.7.1 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
An issue was discovered in phpLiteAdmin 1.9.5 through 1.9.7.1. Due to loose comparison with '==' instead of '===' in classes/Authorization.php for the user-provided login password, it is possible to login with a simpler password if the password has the form of a power in scientific notation (like '2e2' for '200' or '0e1234' for '0'). This is possible because, in the loose comparison case, PHP interprets the string as a number in scientific notation, and thus converts it to a number. After that, the comparison with '==' casts the user input (e.g., the string '200' or '0') to a number, too. Hence the attacker can login with just a '0' or a simple number he has to brute force. Strong comparison with '===' prevents the cast into numbers.

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 · high confidence

phpLiteAdmin 1.9.5-1.9.7.1 uses loose comparison ('==') in classes/Authorization.php for password verification. When a password contains scientific notation (e.g., '2e2' or '0e1234'), PHP interprets it as a number; the loose comparison then casts both the stored password and user input to numbers, allowing authentication bypass with simple numbers like '0' or '200'.

MitigationReplace loose comparison ('==') with strict comparison ('===') in the password validation logic in classes/Authorization.php to prevent PHP type coercion.

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
PhpliteadminApplication
Affected:>= 1.9.5, <= 1.9.7.1

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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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. Confirm phpLiteAdmin installation and version
    Check for phpLiteAdmin by locating the main file (typically index.php or phpliteadmin.php) and look for a version string, often in a VERSION file, in the source code comments, or displayed on the login page
    Affected if Installed version is between 1.9.5 and 1.9.7.1 inclusive
  2. Locate the Authorization class file
    Find classes/Authorization.php within the phpLiteAdmin installation directory
    Affected if The file exists in the expected location within the phpLiteAdmin codebase
  3. Inspect password verification logic for loose comparison
    Open classes/Authorization.php and search for password comparison operations using the loose comparison operator '==' rather than strict comparison '==='
    Affected if The code uses '==' (loose comparison) for password validation instead of '===' (strict comparison)
  4. Check if stored password uses scientific notation format
    Review the password storage mechanism or any configured passwords to determine if any contain scientific notation patterns such as '0e' followed by digits (e.g., '0e1234', '2e2')
    Affected if A stored password or configured authentication credential contains a scientific notation format string that PHP would interpret as a numeric zero or number

You are affected if phpLiteAdmin version 1.9.5-1.9.7.1 is installed AND classes/Authorization.php uses loose comparison for password verification AND the password or a craftable input uses scientific notation format.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 1.9.7.1
Interim mitigation

Replace loose comparison ('==') with strict comparison ('===') in the password validation logic in classes/Authorization.php to prevent PHP type coercion.

Recommended fix High confidence

phpLiteAdmin 1.9.8 or later

  1. Obtain phpLiteAdmin version 1.9.8 or later from the official GitHub repository (github.com/phpliteadmin)
  2. Replace the existing installation files with the version 1.9.8+ files
  3. Verify that classes/Authorization.php now uses strict comparison ('===') instead of loose comparison ('==') for password validation
  4. Test that authentication works correctly with the configured password
  5. If immediate upgrade is not possible, manually edit classes/Authorization.php and change the password comparison from '==' to '===' (e.g., change '$password == $row['password']' to '$password === $row['password']')

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Phpliteadmin Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $860
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,376.

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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-2018-10362 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