# CVE-2020-26935: phpMyAdmin - SQLi

> Live exploitation tracking for CVE-2020-26935 by the CrowdSec Live Exploit Tracker, built from real-world attack data crowdsourced from CrowdSec's global network.

Page: https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2020-26935

## Key facts

- **Exploitation phase:** Limited Exploitation. The vulnerability is known but shows very limited attacker interest or exploitation activity.
- **CVSS score:** 9.8
- **Public exploit available:** Yes
- **Affected products:** phpMyAdmin
- **Weaknesses:** CWE-89 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection'))
- **Tags:** php, management_panel

## Description

An issue was discovered in SearchController in phpMyAdmin before 4.9.6 and 5.x before 5.0.3. A SQL injection vulnerability was discovered in how phpMyAdmin processes SQL statements in the search feature. An attacker could use this flaw to inject malicious SQL in to a query.

## CrowdSec analysis

[CVE-2020-26935](https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/vulnerability/CVE-2020-26935) is a critical SQL injection vulnerability in phpMyAdmin versions before 4.9.6 and 5.x before 5.0.3, specifically within the SearchController component. This flaw allows remote attackers to inject malicious SQL code via the search feature, potentially leading to unauthorized data access, data manipulation, or even full compromise of the underlying database.

CrowdSec has been tracking this vulnerability and its exploits since 11th of February 2026.

CrowdSec has not observed any significant exploitation activity targeting CVE-2020-26935 across its network. As a result, no community-driven trend analysis is available for this vulnerability at this time.

Attackers exploit authenticated sessions in phpMyAdmin by sending crafted POST requests to `/tbl_zoom_select.php` with malicious `where_clause` parameters to perform SQL injection and extract sensitive database information.

## Timeline

- 2020-10-10: CVE Published. CVE-2020-26935 is published to NVD.
- 2026-02-11: Rule Released. CrowdSec releases a rule to detect CVE-2020-26935 exploitation attempts against the CrowdSec Network.
- 2026-08-18: CrowdSec First Seen. CrowdSec observes in-the-wild exploitation of CVE-2020-26935 for the first time.

## References

- https://advisory.checkmarx.net/advisory/CX-2020-4281
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/FHST4E5IJG7IKZTTW3R6MEZPVHJZ472K/
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/10/msg00024.html
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202101-35
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TNLGHVDNAEZEGRTUESSSQFM7MZTHIDQ5/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/PXK37YEHSDYCIPQSYEMN2OFTP2ZLM7DO/
- https://www.phpmyadmin.net/security/PMASA-2020-6/
- https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2020/CVE-2020-26935.yaml

## Live exploitation data

The [Live Exploit Tracker page](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2020-26935) follows observed exploitation activity for CVE-2020-26935. [Request an API key](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/request-api-key) for full access to its exploitation timeline, attacking IP addresses and blocklists.