CVE-2022-23808 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.1) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin. 3 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Cross-site Scripting in phpmyadmin
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2022-23808.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2022-23808 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,386 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
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 5.1 before 5.1.2. An attacker can inject malicious code into aspects of the setup script, which can allow XSS or HTML injection.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin | ≥ 5.1.0&&< 5.1.2 | 5.1.2composer require phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin:^5.1.2 |
Affected Products
phpmyadminphpmyadminResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
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 5.1.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-23808 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Escape or sanitise the affected output on the server side rather than relying on client-side filtering, and add a Content-Security-Policy that blocks inline script execution so injected markup cannot run even if it reaches the page.
How to detect CVE-2022-23808
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2022-23808 -u https://target- Template
- phpMyAdmin < 5.1.2 - Cross-Site Scripting
- Severity
- medium
- Impact
- Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute malicious scripts in the context of the targeted user's browser, potentially leading to session hijacking, data theft, or other malicious activities.
- Remediation
- Upgrade phpMyAdmin to version 5.1.2 or later to mitigate this vulnerability.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (cckuailong, daffainfo), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-23808 in your dependencies?
Find it across Packagist, including transitive dependencies.