diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index f4b9a76977..ea66226ca2 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@ phpMyAdmin - ChangeLog
 - issue #12251 Fixed random logouts due to wrong cookie path
 - issue #12480 Fixed editing of ENUM/SET/DECIMAL fields structure
 - issue #12497 Missing escaping of configuration used in SQL (hide_db and only_db)
+- issue #12476 Add error checking in reading advisory rules file
+- issue #12477 Add checking missing elements and confirming element types from json_decode
 
 4.6.4 (2016-08-16)
 - issue        [security] Weaknesses with cookie encryption, see PMASA-2016-29
diff --git a/libraries/Advisor.php b/libraries/Advisor.php
index 20cf1dfab3..9817fc43ac 100644
--- a/libraries/Advisor.php
+++ b/libraries/Advisor.php
@@ -456,10 +456,20 @@ class Advisor
      */
     public static function parseRulesFile()
     {
-        $file = file('libraries/advisory_rules.txt', FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES);
+        $filename = 'libraries/advisory_rules.txt';
+        $file = file($filename, FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES);
+
         $errors = array();
         $rules = array();
         $lines = array();
+
+        if ($file === FALSE) {
+            $errors[] = __(
+                'Error in reading file: The file \'' . $filename .'\' does not exist or is not readable'
+            );
+            return array('rules' => $rules, 'lines' => $lines, 'errors' => $errors);
+        }
+
         $ruleSyntax = array(
             'name', 'formula', 'test', 'issue', 'recommendation', 'justification'
         );
diff --git a/libraries/common.inc.php b/libraries/common.inc.php
index a9e522f740..00c1a2b934 100644
--- a/libraries/common.inc.php
+++ b/libraries/common.inc.php
@@ -440,9 +440,15 @@ PMA_setGlobalDbOrTable('table');
  */
 if (PMA_isValid($_REQUEST['selected_recent_table'])) {
     $recent_table = json_decode($_REQUEST['selected_recent_table'], true);
-    $GLOBALS['db'] = $recent_table['db'];
+
+    $GLOBALS['db']
+        = (array_key_exists('db', $recent_table) && is_string($recent_table['db'])) ?
+            $recent_table['db'] : '';
     $GLOBALS['url_params']['db'] = $GLOBALS['db'];
-    $GLOBALS['table'] = $recent_table['table'];
+
+    $GLOBALS['table']
+        = (array_key_exists('table', $recent_table) && is_string($recent_table['table'])) ?
+            $recent_table['table'] : '';
     $GLOBALS['url_params']['table'] = $GLOBALS['table'];
 }