CVE-2016-6631

Publication date 11 December 2016

Last updated 25 August 2025

Ubuntu priority

Cvss 3 Severity Score

Description

An issue was discovered in phpMyAdmin. A user can execute a remote code execution attack against a server when phpMyAdmin is being run as a CGI application. Under certain server configurations, a user can pass a query string which is executed as a command-line argument by the file generator_plugin.sh. 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.

From the Ubuntu Security Team

It was discovered that phpmyadmin incorrectly handled request query strings. An attacker could possibly use this to execute arbitrary code.

Status

Show unmaintained releases

Package	Ubuntu Release	Status
phpmyadmin	18.04 LTS bionic	Not affected
	17.10 artful	Not affected
	17.04 zesty	Not affected
	16.10 yakkety	Not affected
	16.04 LTS xenial	Fixed 4:4.5.4.1-2ubuntu2.1
	14.04 LTS trusty	Fixed 4:4.0.10-1ubuntu0.1
	12.04 LTS precise	Ignored end of life

Patch details

For informational purposes only. We recommend not to cherry-pick updates. How can I get the fixes?

Package	Patch details
phpmyadmin	Upstream: 0a3c6d3

Severity score breakdown

CVSS version: CVSS v3.0

Base score 7.5 · High

Base metrics

Parameter	Value
Attack vector	Network
Attack complexity	High
Privileges required	Low
User interaction	None
Scope	Unchanged
Confidentiality impact	High
Integrity impact	High
Availability impact	High

Scores

Parameter	Value
Base score	7.5 · High
Exploitability score	-
Impact score	-

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