CVE-2017-18264
phpMyAdmin Improper Privilege Management
CVE-2017-18264 is a critical vulnerability (CVSS 9.8) in Phpmyadmin, published May 1, 2018. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 2.82%, the 86th percentile. Fixed in phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin 4.0.10.20.
An issue was discovered in libraries/common.inc.php in phpMyAdmin 4.0 before 4.0.10.20, 4.4.x, 4.6.x, and 4.7.0 prereleases. The restrictions caused by $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = false are bypassed under certain PHP versions (e.g., version 5). This can allow the login of users who have no password set even if the administrator has set $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] to false (which is also the default). This occurs because some implementations of the PHP substr function return false when given '' as the first argument.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
NVD Score used
9.8
An issue was discovered in libraries/common.inc.php in phpMyAdmin 4.0 before 4.0.10.20, 4.4.x, 4.6.x, and 4.7.0 prereleases. The restrictions caused by $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = false are bypassed under certain PHP versions (e.g., version 5). This can allow the login of users who have no password set even if the administrator has set $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] to false (which is also the default). This occurs because some implementations of the PHP substr function return false when given '' as the first argument.
- Record
CVE-2017-18264- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 7.5 High
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P - Updated
- 2026-11-02
CVE List No score
An issue was discovered in libraries/common.inc.php in phpMyAdmin 4.0 before 4.0.10.20, 4.4.x, 4.6.x, and 4.7.0 prereleases. The restrictions caused by $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = false are bypassed under certain PHP versions (e.g., version 5). This can allow the login of users who have no password set even if the administrator has set $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] to false (which is also the default). This occurs because some implementations of the PHP substr function return false when given '' as the first argument.
- Record
CVE-2017-18264- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2022-2531 No score
An issue was discovered in libraries/common.inc.php in phpMyAdmin 4.0 before 4.0.10.20, 4.4.x, 4.6.x, and 4.7.0 prereleases. The restrictions caused by $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = false are bypassed under certain PHP versions (e.g., version 5). This can allow the login of users who have no password set even if the administrator has set $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] to false (which is also the default). This occurs because some implementations of the PHP substr function return false when given '' as the first argument.
- Record
EUVD-2022-2531- Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-5868-g58j-vrj5
9.8
phpMyAdmin Improper Privilege Management
An issue was discovered in libraries/common.inc.php in phpMyAdmin 4.0 before 4.0.10.20, 4.4.x, 4.6.x, and 4.7.0 prereleases. The restrictions caused by $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = false are bypassed under certain PHP versions (e.g., version 5). This can allow the login of users who have no password set even if the administrator has set $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] to false (which is also the default). This occurs because some implementations of the PHP substr function return false when given '' as the first argument.
- Record
GHSA-5868-g58j-vrj5- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-269
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
9.8
An issue was discovered in libraries/common.inc.php in phpMyAdmin 4.0 before 4.0.10.20, 4.4.x, 4.6.x, and 4.7.0 prereleases. The restrictions caused by $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = false are bypassed under certain PHP versions (e.g., version 5). This can allow the login of users who have no password set even if the administrator has set $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] to false (which is also the default). This occurs because some implementations of the PHP substr function return false when given '' as the first argument.
- Record
CVE-2017-18264- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2017-18264
9.8
An issue was discovered in libraries/common.inc.php in phpMyAdmin 4.0 before 4.0.10.20, 4.4.x, 4.6.x, and 4.7.0 prereleases. The restrictions caused by $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = false are bypassed under certain PHP versions (e.g., version 5). This can allow the login of users who have no password set even if the administrator has set $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] to false (which is also the default). This occurs because some implementations of the PHP substr function return false when given '' as the first argument.
- Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2017-18264- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-5868-g58j-vrj5
9.8
phpMyAdmin Improper Privilege Management
An issue was discovered in libraries/common.inc.php in phpMyAdmin 4.0 before 4.0.10.20, 4.4.x, 4.6.x, and 4.7.0 prereleases. The restrictions caused by $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = false are bypassed under certain PHP versions (e.g., version 5). This can allow the login of users who have no password set even if the administrator has set $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] to false (which is also the default). This occurs because some implementations of the PHP substr function return false when given '' as the first argument.
- Record
GHSA-5868-g58j-vrj5- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-269
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2017-18264
9.8
An issue was discovered in libraries/common.inc.php in phpMyAdmin 4.0 before 4.0.10.20, 4.4.x, 4.6.x, and 4.7.0 prereleases. The restrictions caused by $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = false are bypassed under certain PHP versions (e.g., version 5). This can allow the login of users who have no password set even if the administrator has set $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] to false (which is also the default). This occurs because some implementations of the PHP substr function return false when given '' as the first argument.
- Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2017-18264- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVUSN-4843-1 No score
phpmyadmin vulnerabilities
Javier Nieto and Andres Rojas discovered that phpMyAdmin incorrectly managed input in the form of passwords. An attacker could use this vulnerability to cause a denial-of-service (DoS). This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 ESM. (CVE-2014-9218)
Emanuel Bronshtein discovered that phpMyAdmin failed to properly sanitize input in the form of database names in the PHP Array export feature. An authenticated attacker could use this vulnerability to run arbitrary PHP commands. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 ESM and Ubuntu 16.04 ESM. (CVE-2016-6609)
Emanuel Bronshtein discovered that phpMyAdmin failed to properly sanitize input. An attacker could use this vulnerability to execute SQL injection attacks. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 ESM and Ubuntu 16.04 ESM. (CVE-2016-6619)
Emanuel Bronshtein discovered that phpMyadmin failed to properly sanitize input. An authenticated attacker could use this vulnerability to cause a denial-of-service (DoS). This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 ESM and Ubuntu 16.04 ESM. (CVE-2016-6630)
Emanuel Bronshtein discovered that phpMyAdmin failed to properly sanitize input. An attacker could use this vulnerability to bypass AllowRoot restrictions and deny rules for usernames. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 ESM and Ubuntu 16.04 ESM. (CVE-2016-9849)
Emanuel Bronshtein discovered that phpMyAdmin would allow sensitive information to be leaked when the argument separator in a URL was not the default & value. An attacker could use this vulnerability to obtain the CSRF token of a user. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 ESM and Ubuntu 16.04 ESM. (CVE-2016-9866)
Isaac Bennetch discovered that phpMyAdmin was incorrectly restricting user access due to the behavior of the substr function on some PHP versions. An attacker could use this vulnerability to bypass login restrictions established for users that have no password set. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 ESM. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 ESM and Ubuntu 16.04 ESM. (CVE-2017-18264)
Emanuel Bronshtein discovered that phpMyAdmin failed to properly sanitize input in the form of parameters sent during a table editing operation. An attacker could use this vulnerability to trigger an endless recursion and cause a denial-of-service (DoS). This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 ESM and Ubuntu 16.04 ESM. (CVE-2017-1000014)
Emanuel Bronshtein discovered that phpMyAdmin failed to properly sanitize input used to generate a web page. An authenticated attacker could use this vulnerability to execute CSS injection attacks. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 ESM and Ubuntu 16.04 ESM. (CVE-2017-1000015)
It was discovered that phpMyAdmin incorrectly handled certain input. An attacker could use this vulnerability to execute a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack via a crafted URL. This issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04 ESM. (CVE-2018-7260)
It was discovered phpMyAdmin incorrectly handled database names. An attacker could possibly use this to trigger a cross-site scripting attack. This issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04 ESM and Ubuntu 18.04 ESM. (CVE-2018-12581)
Daniel Le Gall discovered that phpMyAdmin would expose sensitive information to unauthorized actors due to an error in its transformation feature. An authenticated attacker could use this vulnerability to leak the contents of a local file. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 ESM and Ubuntu 16.04 ESM. (CVE-2018-19968)
It was discovered that phpMyAdmin incorrectly handled user input. An attacker could possibly use this to perform a cross-site scripting attack. This issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04 ESM. (CVE-2018-19970)
It was discovered that phpMyAdmin failed to properly sanitize input. An attacker could use this vulnerability to execute an SQL injection attack via a specially crafted database name. This issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04 ESM. (CVE-2019-11768)
It was discovered that phpMyAdmin incorrectly handled some requests. An attacker could possibly use this to perform a cross…
- Record
USN-4843-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
phpmyadmin/phpmyadminPackagist |
4.0 up to 4.0.10.20 | 4.0.10.20 |
phpmyadmin/phpmyadminPackagist |
4.7.0-beta1 up to 4.7.0 | 4.7.0 |
phpmyadmin/phpmyadminPackagist |
4.4.0 to 4.4.15.10 | None known |
phpmyadmin/phpmyadminPackagist |
4.6.0 to 4.6.6 | None known |
phpmyadminDebian:12 |
before 4:4.6.6-2 | 4:4.6.6-2 |
phpmyadminDebian:13 |
before 4:4.6.6-2 | 4:4.6.6-2 |
phpmyadminDebian:14 |
before 4:4.6.6-2 | 4:4.6.6-2 |
phpmyadminDebian:8 |
before 4:4.2.12-2+deb8u3, plus listed versions 4:4.2.12-24:4.2.12-2+deb8u14:4.2.12-2+deb8u2 |
4:4.2.12-2+deb8u3 |
phpmyadmin/phpmyadminPackagist |
4.0 up to 4.0.10.20, plus listed versions 4.0.04.0.14.0.104.0.10.14.0.10.2 Show 17 moreShow less4.0.10.34.0.10.44.0.10.54.0.10.64.0.10.74.0.10.84.0.10.94.0.24.0.34.0.44.0.4.14.0.4.24.0.54.0.64.0.74.0.84.0.9 |
4.0.10.20 |
phpmyadminUbuntu:Pro:14.04:LTS |
before 4:4.0.10-1ubuntu0.1+esm4, plus listed versions 4:4.0.6-14:4.0.8-14:4.0.9-14:4.0.10-14:4.0.10-1ubuntu0.14:4.0.10-1ubuntu0.1+esm14:4.0.10-1ubuntu0.1+esm24:4.0.10-1ubuntu0.1+esm3 |
4:4.0.10-1ubuntu0.1+esm4 |
Show 4 moreShow less
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
phpmyadminUbuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS |
before 4:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu2.1+esm3, plus listed versions 4:4.4.13.1-14:4.5.0.2-24:4.5.1-14:4.5.1-24:4.5.1-3 Show 9 moreShow less4:4.5.2-14:4.5.2-24:4.5.3.1-14:4.5.4-14:4.5.4.1-24:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu14:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu24:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu2.14:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu2.1+esm2 |
4:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu2.1+esm3 |
phpmyadminUbuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS |
before 4:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu2.1+esm6, plus listed versions 4:4.4.13.1-14:4.5.0.2-24:4.5.1-14:4.5.1-24:4.5.1-3 Show 12 moreShow less4:4.5.2-14:4.5.2-24:4.5.3.1-14:4.5.4-14:4.5.4.1-24:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu14:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu24:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu2.14:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu2.1+esm24:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu2.1+esm34:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu2.1+esm44:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu2.1+esm5 |
4:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu2.1+esm6 |
phpmyadminUbuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS |
before 4:4.6.6-5ubuntu0.5+esm1, plus listed versions 4:4.6.6-54:4.6.6-5ubuntu0.2+esm14:4.6.6-5ubuntu0.2+esm24:4.6.6-5ubuntu0.5 |
4:4.6.6-5ubuntu0.5+esm1 |
phpmyadminUbuntu:Pro:20.04:LTS |
before 4:4.9.5+dfsg1-2ubuntu0.1~esm1, plus listed versions 4:4.9.1+dfsg1-24:4.9.2+dfsg1-14:4.9.5+dfsg1-1ubuntu14:4.9.5+dfsg1-2 |
4:4.9.5+dfsg1-2ubuntu0.1~esm1 |
History
| When | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-11-03 | aliases | EUVD |
| 2026-11-02 | created | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
References
phpmyadmin.net/security/PMASA-2017-8
lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/07/msg00006.html
securityfocus.com/bid/97211
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-18264
github.com/advisories/GHSA-5868-g58j-vrj5
security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-18264
Show 26 moreShow less
github.com/phpmyadmin/composer
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-18264
github.com/phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin/commit/7232271a379396ca1d4b083af051262057003c41
github.com/phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin/commit/b6ca92cc75c8a16001425be7881e73430bcc35b8
cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-18264
ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-4843-1
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2014-9218
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-6609
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-6619
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-6630
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-9849
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-9866
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-1000014
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-1000015
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-7260
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-12581
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-19968
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-19970
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-6798
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-11768
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-12616
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-12922
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-19617
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-5504
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-26934
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-26935
Left out here: the rest of 1 source description. The JSON record has them.