# CVE-2025-43960: Adminer PHP Object Injection issue leads to Denial of Service

> Remote attackers can cause denial of service via memory exhaustion in Adminer when Monolog logging is enabled, requiring manual server recovery.

- **Severity:** High 8.6 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 25 Aug 2025
- **Updated:** 25 Aug 2025
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2025-43960, GHSA-mqh4-2mm8-g7w9, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-43960

## What is CVE-2025-43960?

CVE-2025-43960 is a high-severity unsafe deserialization vulnerability in n/a, published on 25 Aug 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Adminer 4.8.1, when using Monolog for logging, allows a Denial of Service (memory consumption) via a crafted serialized payload (e.g., using s:1000000000), leading to a PHP Object Injection issue. Remote, unauthenticated attackers can trigger this by sending a malicious serialized object, which forces excessive memory usage, rendering Adminer’s interface unresponsive and causing a server-level DoS. While the server may recover after several minutes, multiple simultaneous requests can cause a complete crash requiring manual intervention.

Weakness: CWE-502 (Deserialization of Untrusted Data)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-43960?

2 open source packages ship an affected version, including vrana/adminer. It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `vrana/adminer` | Packagist | All versions to 4.8.1 | None |
| `vrana/adminer` | Packagist | All versions to 4.8.1 | None |

Products: Adminer Adminer.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-43960?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-43960 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-43960 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-43960 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- CVE-2025-43960 - PHP Object Injection en Adminer < 4.8.1 con Monolog (DoS) (github_poc): https://github.com/far00t01/CVE-2025-43960

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2021-21311](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-21311/): Adminer Server-Side Request Forgery (high 7.2, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-7667](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-7667/): vrana/adminer vulnerable to SSRF by connecting to privileged ports (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2026-25892](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-25892/): Adminer has an Unauthenticated Persistent DoS via Array Injection in ?script=version Endpoint (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2021-43008](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-43008/): Files or Directories Accessible to External Parties in Adminer (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2021-29625](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-29625/): XSS in doc_link (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-43960 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-43960 is a high-severity unsafe deserialization vulnerability in n/a, published on 25 Aug 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-43960 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- vrana/adminer (Packagist): affected all versions up to 4.8.1; no fix listed
- vrana/adminer (Packagist): affected all versions up to 4.8.1; no fix listed

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-43960/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-43960/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-43960
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-43960
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-43960

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-43960/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.