WordPress Plugin Portable phpMyAdmin - Authentication Bypass

'portable-phpMyAdmin (WordPress Plugin)' Authentication Bypass (CVE-2012-5469)

Mark Stanislav - mark.stanislav@gmail.com





I. DESCRIPTION

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portable-phpMyAdmin doesn't verify an existing WordPress session (privileged or not) when accessing the plugin file path directly. Because of how this plugin works, a default installation will provide a full phpMyAdmin console with the privilege level of the MySQL configuration of WordPress.



 

II. TESTED VERSION

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1.3.0





III. PoC EXPLOIT

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Navigate to http://host/wp-content/plugins/portable-phpmyadmin/wp-pma-mod and you will be presented with the full portable-phpMyAdmin web interface without the requirement of a session or any credential.





IV. SOLUTION

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Upgrade to version 1.3.1





V. REFERENCES

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http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/portable-phpmyadmin/

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2012-5469





VI. TIMELINE

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10/13/2012 - Initial developer disclosure

10/14/2012 - Response from developer with commitment to fix the vulnerability

10/31/2012 - Follow-up with developer after no communication or patched release

11/16/2012 - Second attempt to follow-up with developer regarding progress/timetable

11/26/2012 - Contacted WordPress 'plugins team' about lack of progress on patched release

11/27/2012 - WordPress 'plugins team' patches software and releases version 1.3.1

12/12/2012 - Public disclosure