CVE-2019-25454: phpMoAdmin XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2019-25454 Overview

CVE-2019-25454 is a stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting phpMoAdmin version 1.1.5. This vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to inject malicious scripts by manipulating the collection parameter. Attackers can send GET requests to moadmin.php with script payloads in the collection parameter during collection creation to execute arbitrary JavaScript in users' browsers.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can inject and persist malicious JavaScript code that executes in the context of other users' browsers, potentially leading to session hijacking, credential theft, or further compromise of the MongoDB administration interface.

Affected Products

• phpMoAdmin 1.1.5
• Phpmoadmin Phpmoadmin (all versions prior to patched releases)

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-02-20 - CVE CVE-2019-25454 published to NVD
• 2026-02-24 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2019-25454

Vulnerability Analysis

This stored XSS vulnerability exists in phpMoAdmin's collection creation functionality. The application fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input in the collection parameter before storing and rendering it in the administrative interface. When an administrator views or interacts with the malicious collection, the injected JavaScript executes within their browser session.

The attack is particularly dangerous because it requires no authentication to inject the malicious payload, while the script execution occurs in authenticated administrator sessions. This asymmetry allows external attackers to target privileged users without needing any credentials themselves.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2019-25454 is improper input validation and output encoding in the moadmin.php script. The collection parameter is accepted without sanitization and stored directly in the database. When this data is subsequently rendered in the web interface, it is not properly escaped, allowing embedded JavaScript to execute.

This represents a classic CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation) vulnerability where user-controllable data flows from input to output without adequate security controls.

Attack Vector

The attack is network-based and requires no authentication. An attacker crafts a malicious GET request to moadmin.php containing JavaScript code in the collection parameter. When the targeted collection is created or viewed, the malicious script persists and executes whenever an administrator accesses the affected page.

The vulnerability mechanism involves the following attack flow:

1. Attacker sends a crafted GET request to moadmin.php with a script payload embedded in the collection parameter
2. phpMoAdmin processes the request without sanitizing the malicious input
3. The payload is stored in the MongoDB database alongside legitimate collection metadata
4. When an administrator views the collections list or accesses the affected collection, the stored JavaScript executes in their browser context
5. The attacker can leverage this execution to steal session cookies, perform actions as the administrator, or redirect users to malicious sites

For technical exploitation details, refer to Exploit-DB #46082 and the VulnCheck Security Advisory.

Detection Methods for CVE-2019-25454

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual or malformed collection names containing HTML tags or JavaScript syntax such as <script>, javascript:, or event handlers like onerror, onload
• Unexpected GET requests to moadmin.php with encoded script payloads in the collection parameter
• Browser console errors or unexpected script execution warnings when accessing phpMoAdmin
• Network traffic showing exfiltration of cookies or session data to external domains

Detection Strategies

• Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block XSS payloads in GET parameters targeting moadmin.php
• Monitor HTTP access logs for requests containing script injection patterns in the collection parameter
• Deploy endpoint detection solutions capable of identifying browser-based attacks and malicious script execution
• Audit MongoDB collections for entries containing suspicious HTML or JavaScript content

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable verbose logging for phpMoAdmin to capture all collection creation and modification events
• Configure security information and event management (SIEM) alerts for XSS attack patterns targeting the application
• Implement content security policy (CSP) headers to detect and report inline script execution attempts
• Regularly review MongoDB collection names and metadata for signs of injection attacks

How to Mitigate CVE-2019-25454

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to phpMoAdmin to trusted IP addresses or internal networks only
• Implement authentication requirements before allowing any phpMoAdmin operations
• Deploy a web application firewall with XSS filtering capabilities in front of the application
• Audit existing MongoDB collections for malicious payloads and remove any suspicious entries
• Consider disabling phpMoAdmin until a patched version is available or security controls are in place

Patch Information

No official patch information is currently available from the vendor. Organizations should monitor the PHPMoAdmin Official Site for security updates. In the absence of an official fix, implementing the workarounds below is strongly recommended.

Workarounds

• Apply input sanitization by modifying moadmin.php to escape HTML entities in the collection parameter before storage and display
• Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to prevent inline script execution: Content-Security-Policy: script-src 'self'
• Use a reverse proxy to filter incoming requests and strip potentially malicious content from the collection parameter
• Restrict phpMoAdmin access using .htaccess rules or server configuration to require authentication
• Consider migrating to alternative MongoDB administration tools that have active security maintenance

# Example Apache configuration to restrict phpMoAdmin access
<Files "moadmin.php">
    AuthType Basic
    AuthName "Restricted Access"
    AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/.htpasswd
    Require valid-user
    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from 192.168.1.0/24
</Files>