CVE-2024-0267: Hospital Management System SQLi Vulnerability

CVE-2024-0267 Overview

CVE-2024-0267 is a SQL injection vulnerability in Kashipara Hospital Management System versions up to 1.0. The flaw resides in the login.php script, where the email and password parameters are passed directly to a backend SQL query without proper sanitization. Remote attackers can exploit the issue without authentication or user interaction to manipulate database queries. Public disclosure of the exploit details makes opportunistic exploitation likely against exposed deployments. The vulnerability is tracked by VulDB as identifier VDB-249823 and classified under CWE-89.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated remote attackers can bypass login, exfiltrate patient records, and compromise the underlying database through crafted email or password values submitted to login.php.

Affected Products

• Kashipara Hospital Management System (surajghosh) versions up to and including 1.0
• The login.php Parameter Handler component
• Any deployment exposing the application to network-accessible clients

Discovery Timeline

• 2024-01-07 - CVE-2024-0267 published to NVD
• 2024-11-21 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-0267

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a classic SQL injection in the authentication routine of Kashipara Hospital Management System. The login.php handler accepts email and password form fields and concatenates them into a SQL query against the user table. Because the application does not use prepared statements or parameter binding, attacker-controlled input alters the query's logic. Successful exploitation yields authentication bypass, arbitrary data extraction, and potentially write access to backend tables.

The weakness aligns with CWE-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command. The attack surface is reachable over the network with no privileges or user interaction. Public proof-of-concept material is referenced in the GitHub Vulnerability Report and indexed by VulDB #249823.

Root Cause

The root cause is the use of unsanitized user input in dynamic SQL construction. The login handler treats the email and password parameters as trusted strings and inserts them directly into a SELECT statement. No input validation, escaping, or parameterized queries are applied before the query reaches the database engine.

Attack Vector

An attacker sends a crafted HTTP POST request to login.php containing SQL meta-characters in the email or password field. Payloads such as a single quote followed by a tautology and a comment sequence terminate the original query early and force a successful authentication branch. The same injection point supports UNION SELECT queries to extract data or stacked statements where the database driver permits them.

The vulnerability is exploitable in prose form only; no verified exploit code is republished here. Refer to the VulDB CTI ID #249823 entry for indexed technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-0267

Indicators of Compromise

• HTTP POST requests to /login.php containing SQL meta-characters such as ', --, /*, UNION, SELECT, or OR 1=1 in the email or password fields
• Web server access logs showing repeated failed logins followed by a successful authentication from the same source IP
• Database error messages or stack traces returned in HTTP responses from login.php
• Anomalous outbound traffic from the application or database host after suspect login activity

Detection Strategies

• Deploy web application firewall signatures that flag SQL injection patterns targeting the login.php endpoint
• Enable database query logging and alert on queries containing tautologies, UNION operators, or commented-out clauses originating from the application user
• Correlate authentication events with web request payloads to identify login bypass attempts

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor the application's database account for unexpected SELECT volume, schema enumeration queries against information_schema, or queries to tables outside the normal login workflow
• Track HTTP response sizes from login.php for outliers consistent with data extraction
• Alert on any 5xx responses from login.php that include database driver error text

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-0267

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to the Hospital Management System using firewall rules or a reverse proxy until a fix is applied
• Deploy WAF rules that block SQL injection signatures on the login.php endpoint, with particular focus on the email and password parameters
• Rotate database credentials and review database audit logs for evidence of prior exploitation
• Reduce the privileges of the database account used by the application to the minimum required for normal operation

Patch Information

No vendor-supplied patch is referenced in the public CVE record at the time of writing. Operators should monitor the VulDB entry and the upstream project for fixes. Until a patch is available, rewrite the affected query to use parameterized statements and apply strict input validation to authentication parameters.

Workarounds

• Replace inline SQL in login.php with prepared statements using parameter binding for email and password
• Apply allow-list input validation on the email field and reject characters outside a strict pattern
• Place the application behind an authenticating reverse proxy to limit exposure to trusted users
• Disable verbose database error messages so query failures do not leak schema information to clients

# Example WAF rule (ModSecurity) to block SQLi attempts against login.php
SecRule REQUEST_URI "@endsWith /login.php" \
    "id:1002670,phase:2,deny,status:403,msg:'SQLi attempt against login.php (CVE-2024-0267)',\
    chain"
    SecRule ARGS:email|ARGS:password "@rx (?i)(\b(union|select|or|and)\b.*\b(select|from|where)\b|--|/\*|;|\bor\b\s+1=1)"