XAMPP for Windows 7.4.6 often came with mod_dav enabled and misconfigured httpd-dav.conf . An attacker uses PUT /shell.php over WebDAV to upload a webshell directly.
Older XAMPP versions allowed access to phpMyAdmin without a password or with the default root/blank password. The exploit script sends: GET /phpmyadmin/index.php HTTP/1.1 If the setup is vulnerable, the attacker executes SELECT "<?php system($_GET['cmd']); ?>" INTO OUTFILE "C:/xampp/htdocs/shell.php" . xampp for windows 746 exploit
If you are still running this version, you are not "retro" – you are a waiting victim. XAMPP for Windows 7
Treat XAMPP as what it is: a development tool , not a production server. If you need a Windows web server, use IIS or properly configured Apache from binaries. If you need a local PHP environment, switch to Docker (e.g., php:8.2-apache ) or use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2). The exploit script sends: GET /phpmyadmin/index
A typical Metasploit module or Python script for the "XAMPP 746 Windows" vector looks like this: