MySQL Remote Code Execution/Privilege Escalation Vulnerability Technical Analysis and Solution

On September 12, 2016, legalhackers.com released a security advisory concerning a 0-day vulnerability that is assigned CVE-2016-6662. This vulnerability allows attackers to remotely inject malicious settings into a MySQL configuration file (my.cnf), leading to critical consequences. It affects MySQL servers in default configuration in all version branches (5.7, 5.6, and 5.5), including the latest versions. MySQL clones like MariaDB and PerconaDB are also affected.