GHSA-c8wj-q36q-3wg4 — phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin
MEDIUMGHSA-c8wj-q36q-3wg4 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) vulnerability in phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin. EPSS puts its 30-day exploitation probability at 14.8% (97th percentile). A fix is available for phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin — see the affected versions and patch details below.
phpMyAdmin Arbitrary file read vulnerability
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
GHSA-c8wj-q36q-3wg4 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 10–50% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
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 before 4.8.5. When the AllowArbitraryServer configuration setting is set to true, with the use of a rogue MySQL server, an attacker can read any file on the server that the web server's user can access. This is related to the mysql.allow_local_infile PHP configuration, and the inadvertent ignoring of "options(MYSQLI_OPT_LOCAL_INFILE" calls.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin | ≥ 4.8&&< 4.8.5 | 4.8.5composer require phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin:^4.8.5 |
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 4.8.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-c8wj-q36q-3wg4 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 GHSA-c8wj-q36q-3wg4 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-c8wj-q36q-3wg4. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
How to detect GHSA-c8wj-q36q-3wg4
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id ghsa-c8wj-q36q-3wg4 -u https://target- Template
- phpMyAdmin <4.8.5 - Local File Inclusion
- Severity
- medium
- Impact
- Successful exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive files.
- Remediation
- Upgrade phpMyAdmin to version 4.8.5 or later to mitigate this vulnerability.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (pwnhxl), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-c8wj-q36q-3wg4 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-c8wj-q36q-3wg4 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.