CVE-2018-25364: Twitter-Clone SQL Injection Vulnerability

CVE-2018-25364 Overview

CVE-2018-25364 is a SQL injection vulnerability in Twitter-Clone 1, an open-source PHP application hosted on GitHub. The flaw resides in the search.php endpoint, which passes the name parameter directly into a SQL query without sanitization. Unauthenticated attackers can inject crafted payloads over the network to execute arbitrary SQL statements against the backend database. Successful exploitation allows extraction of usernames, password hashes, and other stored data using error-based and union-based injection techniques. The vulnerability is cataloged under CWE-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command.

Critical Impact
Unauthenticated remote attackers can extract the entire contents of the application database, including user credentials, through a single crafted HTTP request to search.php.

Affected Products

Twitter-Clone version 1 (PHP application by Fyffe)
Deployments using the search.php endpoint with the vulnerable name parameter
Forks or derivative projects based on the original Twitter-Clone codebase

Discovery Timeline

2026-05-25 - CVE-2018-25364 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2026-05-26 - Last updated in NVD database
A public exploit is documented in Exploit-DB entry 45247 and the VulnCheck SQL Injection Advisory

Technical Details for CVE-2018-25364

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a classic SQL injection issue in a PHP web application. The search.php script accepts a user-supplied name parameter and concatenates it directly into a SQL query sent to the backend database. Because the input is neither parameterized nor escaped, attackers can break out of the intended string context and append arbitrary SQL syntax.

The endpoint is reachable without authentication, which removes any barrier to exploitation. Both error-based and union-based injection techniques work against the endpoint, allowing attackers to enumerate database structure and exfiltrate row data in the HTTP response. The impact is primarily confidentiality loss, as the attacker can read arbitrary tables including any stored credentials.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing input validation and the absence of prepared statements [CWE-89]. The name parameter is treated as trusted input and inserted directly into the SQL query string. PHP applications mitigate this class of flaw by using PDO with bound parameters or mysqli prepared statements, neither of which were applied in the vulnerable code path.

Attack Vector

An attacker sends an HTTP request to the search.php endpoint with a malicious name parameter value. Payloads typically use a UNION SELECT clause to append attacker-controlled columns to the legitimate result set, or use boolean and time-based conditions to infer data when results are not directly reflected. No authentication, user interaction, or special privileges are required. See the Exploit-DB entry for the published proof-of-concept payload structure.

Detection Methods for CVE-2018-25364

Indicators of Compromise

HTTP requests to /search.php containing SQL keywords such as UNION, SELECT, SLEEP, INFORMATION_SCHEMA, or -- in the name parameter
Web server access logs showing unusually long name parameter values or URL-encoded SQL syntax
Database error messages returned in HTTP responses from search.php
Outbound traffic spikes from the web server immediately following suspicious search requests

Detection Strategies

Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with SQL injection signatures applied to query string and POST parameters
Enable verbose web server logging and alert on requests where the name parameter contains SQL metacharacters
Monitor database query logs for anomalous queries originating from the application user, such as unions across unrelated tables
Correlate web access logs with database audit logs to identify injection attempts that reach the SQL engine

Monitoring Recommendations

Aggregate web and database logs into a centralized analytics platform for cross-source correlation
Build alerts for repeated 500-series responses from search.php, which often indicate error-based probing
Track baseline query volumes from the application service account and flag deviations
Review historical logs for prior exploitation attempts since a public exploit has existed since 2018

How to Mitigate CVE-2018-25364

Immediate Actions Required

Take the affected Twitter-Clone instance offline or restrict access to search.php until remediation is complete
Rotate all credentials stored in the application database, treating them as potentially compromised
Review web server and database logs for prior exploitation indicators
Place the application behind a WAF configured to block SQL injection patterns on the name parameter

Patch Information

No official vendor patch is referenced in the NVD entry. The project is hosted at the Fyffe/PHP-Twitter-Clone GitHub repository and appears to be a small open-source project without active maintenance. Operators should fork the project and apply parameterized queries to search.php, replacing direct string concatenation with bound parameters using PDO or mysqli prepared statements.

Workarounds

Replace dynamic SQL in search.php with parameterized queries using PDO prepare() and bindParam()
Apply server-side input validation that restricts the name parameter to expected character classes
Run the database account used by the application with the minimum required privileges to limit injection impact
Consider migrating to a maintained social application platform, as Twitter-Clone 1 has no active vendor support

bash

# Example WAF rule (ModSecurity) to block SQL keywords in the name parameter
SecRule ARGS:name "@rx (?i)(union(\s+all)?\s+select|information_schema|sleep\s*\(|--|/\*)" \
    "id:1002018,phase:2,deny,status:403,msg:'CVE-2018-25364 SQLi attempt on search.php'"