CVE-2016-9853 — phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin
MEDIUMCVE-2016-9853 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) Information Exposure vulnerability in phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin. A fix is available for phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin — see the affected versions and patch details below.
phpMyAdmin path disclosure
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-2016-9853 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 377,166 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/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
An issue was discovered in phpMyAdmin. By calling some scripts that are part of phpMyAdmin in an unexpected way, it is possible to trigger phpMyAdmin to display a PHP error message which contains the full path of the directory where phpMyAdmin is installed. During an execution timeout in the export functionality, the errors containing the full path of the directory of phpMyAdmin are written to the export file. All 4.6.x versions (prior to 4.6.5), and 4.4.x versions (prior to 4.4.15.9) are affected. This CVE is for the fopen wrapper issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin | ≥ 4.6.0&&< 4.6.5 | 4.6.5composer require phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin:^4.6.5 |
| 🐘Packagist | phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin | ≥ 4.4.0&&< 4.4.15.9 | 4.4.15.9composer require phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin:^4.4.15.9 |
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 4.6.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2016-9853 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-2016-9853 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2016-9853. 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-2016-9853 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2016-9853 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.