CVE-2015-6830

phpMyAdmin is a tool many small businesses use to manage their website's database. Some admins turn on an extra login protection that requires solving several captchas in a row to slow down attackers guessing passwords. This flaw is like a security guard checking ID only once instead of at every checkpoint — attackers can slip through by solving just one captcha instead of all of them, making it easier to try lots of passwords automatically.

This matters to you if you run phpMyAdmin version 4.3.x before 4.3.13.2 or 4.4.x before 4.4.14.1. It specifically matters if you've enabled the multiple-reCaptcha login protection feature — if that feature isn't turned on, this issue doesn't apply to you. It's only a meaningful risk if your phpMyAdmin login page is reachable from the internet.

There's no evidence this is being actively exploited and no public exploit code exists, so this is not an emergency. It does weaken a specific anti-brute-force safeguard, so you should plan to upgrade in your normal patching cycle rather than ignore it. Treat it as a moderate-priority fix, not a drop-everything issue.

Confirm exposure by checking whether your deployment uses the AuthenticationCookie login method with the multiple-reCaptcha ('ReCaptcha') configuration option enabled in config.inc.php. If so, upgrade to phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin 4.3.13.2 or later (4.3.x branch) or 4.4.14.1 or later (4.4.x branch) — these are the vendor-confirmed fixed releases per PMASA-2015-4. There are no known breaking changes tied to this specific fix beyond normal version upgrade testing. As a temporary workaround while patching is scheduled, restrict access to the phpMyAdmin login page via IP allowlisting, VPN, or HTTP basic auth in front of the application, which neutralizes the brute-force benefit of bypassing the captcha. No CISA KEV listing exists, so there is no federal remediation deadline. Monitor phpMyAdmin login logs for repeated failed authentication attempts from a single source as a sign of ongoing brute-force activity.

CVSS 5.0 (Medium, AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N) reflects a confidentiality-impacting logic flaw in the login brute-force defense rather than direct compromise. CWE-200 classification is applied though the issue is really a security control bypass in multi-stage reCaptcha validation within AuthenticationCookie.class.php. EPSS predicts low-to-moderate exploitation likelihood with a falling trend, and it is not in CISA's KEV catalog; exploit maturity is theoretical, with no public PoC. Press attention is described as rising, but this reflects general interest rather than confirmed active exploitation, so it should not elevate urgency on its own.