The version of phpMyAdmin installed on the remote host does not sanitize user input used for the db_central_columns parameter leading to a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability. Note that the scanner has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The phpMyAdmin team reports : Summary Self XSS in central columns feature Description A self-cross site scripting (XSS) vulnerability has been reported relating to the central columns feature. Severity We consider this vulnerability to be of moderate severity. Mitigation factor A valid token must be used in the attack

The remote Ubuntu 16.04 ESM / 18.04 ESM / 20.04 ESM host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-4843-1 advisory.

  - libraries/common.inc.php in phpMyAdmin 4.0.x before 4.0.10.7, 4.1.x before 4.1.14.8, and 4.2.x before     4.2.13.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (resource consumption) via a long password.
    (CVE-2014-9218)

  - An issue was discovered in phpMyAdmin. A specially crafted database name could be used to run arbitrary     PHP commands through the array export feature. All 4.6.x versions (prior to 4.6.4), 4.4.x versions (prior     to 4.4.15.8), and 4.0.x versions (prior to 4.0.10.17) are affected. (CVE-2016-6609)

  - An issue was discovered in phpMyAdmin. In the user interface preference feature, a user can execute an SQL     injection attack against the account of the control user. All 4.6.x versions (prior to 4.6.4), 4.4.x     versions (prior to 4.4.15.8), and 4.0.x versions (prior to 4.0.10.17) are affected. (CVE-2016-6619)

  - An issue was discovered in phpMyAdmin. An authenticated user can trigger a denial-of-service (DoS) attack     by entering a very long password at the change password dialog. All 4.6.x versions (prior to 4.6.4), 4.4.x     versions (prior to 4.4.15.8), and 4.0.x versions (prior to 4.0.10.17) are affected. (CVE-2016-6630)

  - An issue was discovered in phpMyAdmin. It is possible to bypass AllowRoot restriction     ($cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowRoot']) and deny rules for username by using Null Byte in the username. All     4.6.x versions (prior to 4.6.5), 4.4.x versions (prior to 4.4.15.9), and 4.0.x versions (prior to     4.0.10.18) are affected. (CVE-2016-9849)

  - An issue was discovered in phpMyAdmin. When the arg_separator is different from its default & value, the     CSRF token was not properly stripped from the return URL of the preference import action. All 4.6.x     versions (prior to 4.6.5), 4.4.x versions (prior to 4.4.15.9), and 4.0.x versions (prior to 4.0.10.18) are     affected. (CVE-2016-9866)

  - 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. (CVE-2017-18264)

  - phpMyAdmin 4.0, 4.4, and 4.6 are vulnerable to a DOS weakness in the table editing functionality     (CVE-2017-1000014)

  - phpMyAdmin 4.0, 4.4, and 4.6 are vulnerable to a CSS injection attack through crafted cookie parameters     (CVE-2017-1000015)

  - Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in db_central_columns.php in phpMyAdmin before 4.7.8 allows     remote authenticated users to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via a crafted URL. (CVE-2018-7260)

  - An issue was discovered in js/designer/move.js in phpMyAdmin before 4.8.2. A Cross-Site Scripting     vulnerability has been found where an attacker can use a crafted database name to trigger an XSS attack     when that database is referenced from the Designer feature. (CVE-2018-12581)

  - An attacker can exploit phpMyAdmin before 4.8.4 to leak the contents of a local file because of an error     in the transformation feature. The attacker must have access to the phpMyAdmin Configuration Storage     tables, although these can easily be created in any database to which the attacker has access. An attacker     must have valid credentials to log in to phpMyAdmin; this vulnerability does not allow an attacker to     circumvent the login system. (CVE-2018-19968)

  - In phpMyAdmin before 4.8.4, an XSS vulnerability was found in the navigation tree, where an attacker can     deliver a payload to a user through a crafted database/table name. (CVE-2018-19970)

  - An issue was discovered in phpMyAdmin before 4.8.5. A vulnerability was reported where a specially crafted     username can be used to trigger a SQL injection attack through the designer feature. (CVE-2019-6798)

  - An issue was discovered in phpMyAdmin before 4.9.0.1. A vulnerability was reported where a specially     crafted database name can be used to trigger an SQL injection attack through the designer feature.
    (CVE-2019-11768)

  - An issue was discovered in phpMyAdmin before 4.9.0. A vulnerability was found that allows an attacker to     trigger a CSRF attack against a phpMyAdmin user. The attacker can trick the user, for instance through a     broken <img> tag pointing at the victim's phpMyAdmin database, and the attacker can potentially deliver a     payload (such as a specific INSERT or DELETE statement) to the victim. (CVE-2019-12616)

  - A CSRF issue in phpMyAdmin 4.9.0.1 allows deletion of any server in the Setup page. (CVE-2019-12922)

  - phpMyAdmin before 4.9.2 does not escape certain Git information, related to     libraries/classes/Display/GitRevision.php and libraries/classes/Footer.php. (CVE-2019-19617)

  - In phpMyAdmin 4 before 4.9.4 and 5 before 5.0.1, SQL injection exists in the user accounts page. A     malicious user could inject custom SQL in place of their own username when creating queries to this page.
    An attacker must have a valid MySQL account to access the server. (CVE-2020-5504)

  - phpMyAdmin before 4.9.6 and 5.x before 5.0.3 allows XSS through the transformation feature via a crafted     link. (CVE-2020-26934)

  - An issue was discovered in SearchController in phpMyAdmin before 4.9.6 and 5.x before 5.0.3. A SQL     injection vulnerability was discovered in how phpMyAdmin processes SQL statements in the search feature.
    An attacker could use this flaw to inject malicious SQL in to a query. (CVE-2020-26935)

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

This update for phpMyAdmin 4.7.8 fixes the following issues :

  - CVE-2018-7260: self-cross site scripting (XSS)     vulnerability in the central columns feature     (boo#1082188) This version also fixes some minor     functionality bugs. The previous update already fixed     CVE-2017-1000499.

From upstream announcement :

**Security fix: phpMyAdmin 4.7.8 is released**

Welcome to phpMyAdmin 4.7.8, a security releaes also containing regular maintenance bug fixes.

The security fix relates to a self-XSS vulnerability in the central columns feature that is reported as PMASA-2018-1 https://www.phpmyadmin.net/security/PMASA-2018-1/. Thanks to Mayur Udiniya https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayur-udiniya-09247b129/ for finding and responsibly disclosing this flaw.

We recommend all users upgrade to resolve this security problem.

A complete list of new features and bugs that have been fixed is available in the ChangeLog file or changelog.php included with this release.

Notable changes since 4.7.7 :

  - Fixed error handling with PHP 7.2

  - Fixed resetting default setting values

  - Fixed fallback value for collation connection

Additionally, there have been continuous improvements to many of the translations. If you don't see your language or find a problem, you can contribute too; see https://www.phpmyadmin.net/translate/ for details.

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora update system website.
Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

According to its self-reported version, the phpMyAdmin application hosted on the remote web server is 4.7.x prior to 4.7.8. Versions since 4.3 are also affected, but they are no longer supported. It is, therefore, affected by a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in db_central_columns.php. A remote, authenticated attacker can exploit this, by convincing a user to click a specially crafted URL, to execute arbitrary script code in a user's browser session.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Ubuntu 18.04 LTS host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-4639-1 advisory.

  - Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in db_central_columns.php in phpMyAdmin before 4.7.8 allows     remote authenticated users to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via a crafted URL. (CVE-2018-7260)

  - An attacker can exploit phpMyAdmin before 4.8.4 to leak the contents of a local file because of an error     in the transformation feature. The attacker must have access to the phpMyAdmin Configuration Storage     tables, although these can easily be created in any database to which the attacker has access. An attacker     must have valid credentials to log in to phpMyAdmin; this vulnerability does not allow an attacker to     circumvent the login system. (CVE-2018-19968)

  - In phpMyAdmin before 4.8.4, an XSS vulnerability was found in the navigation tree, where an attacker can     deliver a payload to a user through a crafted database/table name. (CVE-2018-19970)

  - An issue was discovered in phpMyAdmin before 4.8.5. A vulnerability was reported where a specially crafted     username can be used to trigger a SQL injection attack through the designer feature. (CVE-2019-6798)

  - An issue was discovered in phpMyAdmin before 4.8.5. When the AllowArbitraryServer configuration setting is     set to true, with the use of a rogue MySQL server, an attacker can read any file on the server that the     web server's user can access. This is related to the mysql.allow_local_infile PHP configuration, and the     inadvertent ignoring of options(MYSQLI_OPT_LOCAL_INFILE calls. (CVE-2019-6799)

  - An issue was discovered in phpMyAdmin before 4.9.0.1. A vulnerability was reported where a specially     crafted database name can be used to trigger an SQL injection attack through the designer feature.
    (CVE-2019-11768)

  - An issue was discovered in phpMyAdmin before 4.9.0. A vulnerability was found that allows an attacker to     trigger a CSRF attack against a phpMyAdmin user. The attacker can trick the user, for instance through a     broken  tag pointing at the victim's phpMyAdmin database, and the attacker can potentially deliver a     payload (such as a specific INSERT or DELETE statement) to the victim. (CVE-2019-12616)

  - In phpMyAdmin 4 before 4.9.4 and 5 before 5.0.1, SQL injection exists in the user accounts page. A     malicious user could inject custom SQL in place of their own username when creating queries to this page.
    An attacker must have a valid MySQL account to access the server. (CVE-2020-5504)

  - In phpMyAdmin 4.x before 4.9.5 and 5.x before 5.0.2, a SQL injection vulnerability has been discovered     where certain parameters are not properly escaped when generating certain queries for search actions in     libraries/classes/Controllers/Table/TableSearchController.php. An attacker can generate a crafted database     or table name. The attack can be performed if a user attempts certain search operations on the malicious     database or table. (CVE-2020-10802)

  - In phpMyAdmin 4.x before 4.9.5 and 5.x before 5.0.2, a SQL injection vulnerability was discovered where     malicious code could be used to trigger an XSS attack through retrieving and displaying results (in     tbl_get_field.php and libraries/classes/Display/Results.php). The attacker must be able to insert crafted     data into certain database tables, which when retrieved (for instance, through the Browse tab) can trigger     the XSS attack. (CVE-2020-10803)

  - In phpMyAdmin 4.x before 4.9.5 and 5.x before 5.0.2, a SQL injection vulnerability was found in retrieval     of the current username (in libraries/classes/Server/Privileges.php and     libraries/classes/UserPassword.php). A malicious user with access to the server could create a crafted     username, and then trick the victim into performing specific actions with that user account (such as     editing its privileges). (CVE-2020-10804)

  - phpMyAdmin before 4.9.6 and 5.x before 5.0.3 allows XSS through the transformation feature via a crafted     link. (CVE-2020-26934)

  - An issue was discovered in SearchController in phpMyAdmin before 4.9.6 and 5.x before 5.0.3. A SQL     injection vulnerability was discovered in how phpMyAdmin processes SQL statements in the search feature.
    An attacker could use this flaw to inject malicious SQL in to a query. (CVE-2020-26935)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
113286	phpMyAdmin 4.7.x < 4.7.8 Cross-Site Scripting	Web App Scanning	Component Vulnerability	7/11/2022	3/14/2023	medium
106938	FreeBSD : phpMyAdmin -- self XSS in central columns feature (261ca31c-179f-11e8-b8b9-6805ca0b3d42)	Nessus	FreeBSD Local Security Checks	2/22/2018	11/10/2018	medium
183178	Ubuntu 16.04 ESM / 18.04 ESM / 20.04 ESM : phpMyAdmin vulnerabilities (USN-4843-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	10/16/2023	10/16/2023	critical
106997	openSUSE Security Update : phpMyAdmin (openSUSE-2018-206)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	2/26/2018	1/19/2021	high
107010	Fedora 27 : php-phpmyadmin-motranslator / php-phpmyadmin-sql-parser / etc (2018-a1650ed14f)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	2/27/2018	1/6/2021	medium
107107	Fedora 26 : php-phpmyadmin-motranslator / php-phpmyadmin-sql-parser / etc (2018-147d33439c)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	3/2/2018	1/6/2021	medium
143262	phpMyAdmin 4.3.x < 4.7.8 XSS (PMASA-2018-1)	Nessus	CGI abuses	11/25/2020	2/8/2024	medium
143119	Ubuntu 18.04 LTS : phpMyAdmin vulnerabilities (USN-4639-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	11/19/2020	10/21/2023	critical

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