CVE-2024-10440: Sun.net eHDR CTMS SQLi Vulnerability

CVE-2024-10440 Overview

The eHDR CTMS (Clinical Trial Management System) from Sunnet contains a SQL Injection vulnerability that allows unauthenticated remote attackers to inject arbitrary SQL commands. This flaw enables malicious actors to read, modify, and delete database contents without requiring any authentication, posing a severe risk to data integrity and confidentiality.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can fully compromise the database by reading sensitive clinical trial data, modifying records, or deleting critical information through arbitrary SQL command injection.

Affected Products

• Sunnet eHDR CTMS (all versions)
• sun.net ehrd_ctms

Discovery Timeline

• 2024-10-28 - CVE CVE-2024-10440 published to NVD
• 2025-09-25 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-10440

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL Injection vulnerability (CWE-89) exists in the Sunnet eHDR Clinical Trial Management System, a platform typically used to manage clinical trial data and patient information. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it requires no authentication to exploit—remote attackers can directly interact with vulnerable endpoints and inject malicious SQL statements.

The attack can be conducted over the network with low complexity, requiring no privileges or user interaction. Successful exploitation grants attackers complete control over the database, enabling them to extract sensitive clinical trial data, patient records, and administrative credentials. Attackers can also modify or delete data, potentially disrupting clinical trial operations and compromising data integrity.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is improper input validation and lack of parameterized queries (CWE-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command). User-supplied input is directly concatenated into SQL queries without proper sanitization or the use of prepared statements, allowing attackers to manipulate the query structure.

Attack Vector

The vulnerability is exploitable via the network attack vector. An unauthenticated attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests containing SQL injection payloads targeting vulnerable parameters within the eHDR CTMS application. By injecting specially crafted SQL commands, the attacker can bypass authentication mechanisms, extract sensitive data through UNION-based or error-based techniques, modify database records, or execute destructive DELETE/DROP statements.

The attack does not require any special privileges or user interaction, making it trivially exploitable by any attacker with network access to the vulnerable system. Clinical trial management systems often contain highly sensitive data including patient information, making this vulnerability particularly concerning from a regulatory and privacy standpoint.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-10440

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual database query patterns or errors in application logs indicating SQL syntax errors
• Unexpected database access attempts from external IP addresses
• Database audit logs showing bulk data extraction or unauthorized SELECT queries
• Application logs containing SQL injection payloads such as single quotes, UNION statements, or comment sequences

Detection Strategies

• Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block SQL injection patterns in HTTP requests
• Monitor database query logs for anomalous queries, including those containing UNION, SELECT, DELETE, or DROP commands from unexpected sources
• Implement database activity monitoring to detect unauthorized read/write operations
• Review application logs for error messages that may indicate SQL injection attempts

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable verbose logging on the eHDR CTMS application and associated database servers
• Configure alerting for failed SQL queries or database errors that may indicate exploitation attempts
• Monitor network traffic for suspicious requests to known vulnerable endpoints
• Establish baseline database access patterns to identify anomalous behavior

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-10440

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to the eHDR CTMS application to trusted IP ranges only
• Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with SQL injection protection rules in front of the application
• Review database permissions and apply principle of least privilege to limit potential damage from successful exploitation
• Back up all database contents and enable enhanced logging for forensic purposes

Patch Information

Contact Sunnet directly for patch availability and remediation guidance. Review the security advisories published by TWCert for additional technical details:

• TWCert Security Advisory
• TWCert Incident Report

Workarounds

• Place the vulnerable application behind a reverse proxy with SQL injection filtering capabilities
• Implement network segmentation to isolate the eHDR CTMS system from untrusted networks
• If possible, disable external network access to the application until a patch is available
• Deploy database-level controls such as stored procedure restrictions and query whitelisting

# Example: IPTables rule to restrict access to the application
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -s <TRUSTED_IP_RANGE> -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j DROP