Overview
A critical SQL injection vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-60798, has been discovered in phpPgAdmin versions 7.13.0 and earlier. This vulnerability allows an authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary SQL commands, potentially leading to complete database compromise. It stems from insufficient input sanitization in the display.php file.
Technical Details
The vulnerability resides in the display.php file at line 396 of phpPgAdmin. The application directly passes user-controlled input from the $_REQUEST['query'] parameter to the browseQuery function without proper sanitization. This allows an attacker with valid authentication credentials to inject malicious SQL code into the query, potentially bypassing security measures and gaining unauthorized access to sensitive data or executing arbitrary commands on the database server.
The vulnerable code snippet in display.php is similar to the following (refer to the link in references):
$query = $_REQUEST['query'];
$result = browseQuery($query); // Vulnerable function call
This direct use of user-supplied data makes it highly susceptible to SQL injection attacks.
CVSS Analysis
Due to the missing severity and CVSS Score in the original data, we cannot provide a CVSS analysis. However, given that this is a SQL Injection vulnerability that leads to potential complete database compromise, it’s crucial to treat this with the highest priority.
Possible Impact
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability can have severe consequences, including:
- Data Breach: Unauthorized access to sensitive data stored in the database, such as user credentials, financial information, and other confidential records.
- Data Modification: Ability to modify or delete data within the database, leading to data corruption or loss.
- Privilege Escalation: Gaining elevated privileges within the database system.
- Denial of Service (DoS): Disrupting database services, making the application unavailable to legitimate users.
- Remote Code Execution (RCE): In certain scenarios, exploiting SQL injection can lead to remote code execution on the database server.
Mitigation or Patch Steps
To mitigate this vulnerability, the following steps are recommended:
- Upgrade phpPgAdmin: The most effective solution is to upgrade to the latest version of phpPgAdmin as soon as a patch is released by the developers. Check the official phpPgAdmin website for updates.
- Input Sanitization: Implement strict input sanitization and validation for all user-supplied data, especially the
queryparameter. Use parameterized queries or prepared statements to prevent SQL injection. - Web Application Firewall (WAF): Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to detect and block malicious SQL injection attempts. Configure the WAF with rules to identify and filter out suspicious SQL queries.
- Least Privilege Principle: Ensure that the database user account used by phpPgAdmin has only the necessary privileges to perform its intended functions. Avoid granting unnecessary administrative privileges.
- Regular Security Audits: Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing to identify and address potential vulnerabilities in your phpPgAdmin deployment.
