CVE-2024-0267: Hospital Management System SQLi Vulnerability

CVE-2024-0267 Overview

A critical SQL injection vulnerability has been identified in Kashipara Hospital Management System up to version 1.0. This vulnerability affects the login.php file within the Parameter Handler component, where improper handling of the email and password parameters allows attackers to inject malicious SQL queries. The vulnerability can be exploited remotely without authentication, potentially allowing unauthorized access to sensitive patient data, administrative functions, and complete database compromise.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated remote attackers can exploit this SQL injection vulnerability to bypass authentication, extract sensitive healthcare data, modify database records, or potentially achieve full system compromise.

Affected Products

• Kashipara Hospital Management System version 1.0 and earlier
• Surajghosh Hospital Management System (all versions up to 1.0)

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

This SQL injection vulnerability (CWE-89) exists in the authentication mechanism of the Hospital Management System. The login.php file fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input in the email and password parameters before incorporating them into SQL queries. This allows an attacker to manipulate the query logic, bypassing authentication controls or extracting data from the underlying database.

Healthcare management systems typically store highly sensitive information including patient records, medical histories, billing information, and staff credentials. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to unauthorized access to protected health information (PHI), violating patient privacy and potentially resulting in regulatory compliance violations.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is the lack of proper input validation and parameterized queries in the login functionality. The application directly concatenates user-supplied input into SQL statements without sanitization, escaping, or the use of prepared statements. This classic SQL injection pattern allows attackers to break out of the intended query context and execute arbitrary SQL commands.

Attack Vector

The attack can be launched remotely over the network without requiring any authentication or user interaction. An attacker simply needs to craft a malicious HTTP request to the login.php endpoint with SQL injection payloads in the email or password parameters.

The exploitation technique involves injecting SQL syntax that modifies the query's logic. For authentication bypass, an attacker might use payloads that always evaluate to true, effectively bypassing credential verification. For data extraction, UNION-based or error-based injection techniques can be employed to retrieve sensitive information from the database.

Technical details and proof-of-concept information are available in the GitHub PoC Document and VulDB advisory.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-0267

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual login attempts with SQL syntax characters in authentication logs (quotes, semicolons, UNION keywords)
• Error messages containing SQL syntax errors exposed to clients
• Unexpected database query patterns or access to multiple tables during login attempts
• Evidence of data exfiltration or unauthorized database dumps

Detection Strategies

• Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block SQL injection patterns in POST parameters
• Monitor application logs for authentication attempts containing suspicious characters such as single quotes, double dashes, or SQL keywords
• Implement database activity monitoring to detect anomalous query patterns or unauthorized data access
• Use SentinelOne Singularity platform to detect post-exploitation activities and lateral movement attempts

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable verbose logging on the web server and database to capture detailed request information
• Configure alerts for failed login attempts with malformed input parameters
• Monitor network traffic for large data transfers that could indicate database exfiltration
• Implement file integrity monitoring on critical application files including login.php

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-0267

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to the Hospital Management System to trusted IP ranges only
• Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with SQL injection detection rules
• Consider taking the application offline if it contains sensitive data until a proper fix can be implemented
• Review database logs for evidence of prior exploitation attempts

Patch Information

No official vendor patch has been released for this vulnerability. Users of Kashipara Hospital Management System should contact the vendor for remediation guidance. In the absence of an official patch, organizations should implement the workarounds below and consider migrating to a more secure alternative if the software is no longer actively maintained.

For additional technical information, refer to the VulDB CTI advisory.

Workarounds

• Implement prepared statements and parameterized queries in the login.php file to prevent SQL injection
• Deploy input validation to reject email addresses and passwords containing SQL metacharacters
• Use a reverse proxy or WAF to filter malicious requests before they reach the application
• Restrict database user privileges to minimum required permissions, preventing DROP, DELETE, or schema modifications

# Example WAF rule for ModSecurity to block SQL injection attempts
SecRule ARGS "@detectSQLi" \
    "id:1001,\
    phase:2,\
    deny,\
    status:403,\
    log,\
    msg:'SQL Injection Attempt Detected',\
    tag:'application-multi',\
    tag:'language-multi',\
    tag:'platform-multi',\
    tag:'attack-sqli'"