CVE-2016-5706 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-399 vulnerability in phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin. A fix is available for phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin — see the affected versions and patch details below.
phpMyAdmin Denial Of Service (DOS) attack
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2016-5706 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin🐘phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin🐘phpmyadmin/phpmyadminReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
js/get_scripts.js.php in phpMyAdmin 4.0.x before 4.0.10.16, 4.4.x before 4.4.15.7, and 4.6.x before 4.6.3 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a large array in the scripts parameter.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin | ≥ 4.0&&< 4.0.10.16 | 4.0.10.16composer require phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin:^4.0.10.16 |
| 🐘Packagist | phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin | ≥ 4.4&&< 4.4.15.7 | 4.4.15.7composer require phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin:^4.4.15.7 |
| 🐘Packagist | phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin | ≥ 4.6&&< 4.6.3 | 4.6.3composer require phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin:^4.6.3 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin to 4.0.10.16 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2016-5706 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2016-5706 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2016-5706. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2016-5706 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2016-5706 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.