CVE-2023-45196
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability allows unauthenticated remote attackers to cause denial of service by tricking Adminer/AdminerEvo into connecting to malicious services that respond with HTTP redirects. The attack consumes server resources subject to PHP configuration limits. Affects Adminer (unsupported) and AdminerEvo before version 4.8.4.
💻 Affected Systems
- Adminer
- AdminerEvo
📦 What is this software?
Adminerevo by Adminerevo
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete service unavailability due to resource exhaustion, potentially affecting all users of the database management interface.
Likely Case
Temporary service degradation or unavailability for Adminer/AdminerEvo interface users.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if PHP resource limits are properly configured and monitored.
🎯 Exploit Status
Simple HTTP redirect loop can be created to exploit this vulnerability without authentication.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: AdminerEvo 4.8.4
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/adminerevo/adminerevo/pull/102/commits/23e7cdc0a32b3739e13d19ae504be0fe215142b6
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Download AdminerEvo 4.8.4 or later from official repository. 2. Replace existing AdminerEvo files with patched version. 3. Verify installation by checking version.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict PHP Resource Limits
allConfigure PHP to limit resource consumption and prevent DoS
php -i | grep -E '(max_execution_time|memory_limit)'
Edit php.ini: max_execution_time = 30, memory_limit = 128M
Network Access Control
linuxRestrict Adminer/AdminerEvo access to trusted networks only
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport [adminer-port] -s [trusted-network] -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport [adminer-port] -j DROP
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict network access controls to limit Adminer/AdminerEvo exposure
- Configure aggressive PHP resource limits and implement monitoring for resource exhaustion
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check AdminerEvo version - if below 4.8.4, vulnerable. For Adminer, all versions are vulnerable as unsupported.Check Version:
grep -r 'version' adminer_directory/ | grep -i '4.8'Verify Fix Applied:
Verify AdminerEvo version is 4.8.4 or higher using version check or by examining source code for redirect handling fixes.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Multiple HTTP redirect errors in PHP/application logs
- Resource exhaustion warnings in system logs
- Unusual outbound connections from Adminer instance
Network Indicators:
- Multiple HTTP 3xx responses to Adminer requests
- Unusual traffic patterns to/from Adminer port
SIEM Query:
source="php.log" AND "redirect" AND "adminer" OR source="apache.log" AND status=3* AND uri="*/adminer*"