2019-06-04
Welcome to phpMyAdmin 4.9.0.1, a bugfix release that includes important security fixes.
This release fixes two security vulnerabilities:
Version 4.9.0 mistakenly did not include a commit and 4.9.0.1 was quickly released to include that missing fix.
Upgrading is highly recommended for all users. Using the 'http' auth_type instead of 'cookie' can mitigate the CSRF attack.
The solution for the CSRF attack does remove the former functionality to log in directly through URL parameters (as mentioned in FAQ 4.8, such as https://example.com/phpmyadmin/?pma_username=root&password=foo). Such behavior was discouraged and is now removed. Other query parameters work as expected; only pma_username and pma_password have been removed.
As a result of the removal of this feature, we have decided the change in behavior justifies a version increase from 4.8.x to 4.9. We strive to adhere to Semantic Versioning principles, which prohibit removing features in patch releases. Previously version 4.8.x was intended as the LTS version supporting PHP 5.5; because of this change the LTS branch will now become version 4.9.x.
This release also includes fixes for many bugs, including:
There are many, many more bug fixes thanks to the efforts of our developers, Google Summer of Code applicants, and other contributors.
The phpMyAdmin team
edit 2019-06-05 - Added information about why this is 4.9.0 rather than 4.8.x.