CVE-2024-12943: House Rental Management System SQLi Flaw

CVE-2024-12943 Overview

A critical SQL Injection vulnerability has been identified in CodeAstro House Rental Management System version 1.0. The vulnerability exists in the /ownersignup.php file, where multiple parameters (f/e/p/m/o/n/c/s/ci/a) are susceptible to SQL injection attacks due to insufficient input validation and sanitization. This allows unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands against the underlying database.

Critical Impact

Remote attackers can exploit this SQL injection vulnerability to extract sensitive data, modify database contents, bypass authentication mechanisms, or potentially achieve further system compromise through database-level attacks.

Affected Products

• CodeAstro House Rental Management System 1.0
• Web applications using the vulnerable /ownersignup.php endpoint
• Systems with network-accessible instances of the House Rental Management System

Discovery Timeline

• 2024-12-26 - CVE-2024-12943 published to NVD
• 2025-04-03 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-12943

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL Injection vulnerability (CWE-74: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component) affects the owner signup functionality of the CodeAstro House Rental Management System. The vulnerability arises from the application's failure to properly sanitize user-supplied input before incorporating it into SQL queries.

The initial security research identified the parameter "m" as vulnerable, but the advisory notes that multiple parameters within the signup form (f, e, p, m, o, n, c, s, ci, a) should be considered potentially exploitable. This broad attack surface significantly increases the risk, as attackers have multiple injection points to leverage.

The vulnerability is network-exploitable without requiring authentication or user interaction, making it particularly dangerous for internet-facing deployments of this property management application.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is the direct concatenation or improper handling of user-controlled input parameters in SQL queries within the /ownersignup.php file. The application fails to implement parameterized queries (prepared statements) or adequate input validation, allowing malicious SQL syntax to be injected through form fields intended for legitimate user registration data.

Attack Vector

The attack can be launched remotely over the network by submitting crafted HTTP requests to the /ownersignup.php endpoint. An attacker can inject malicious SQL statements through any of the vulnerable parameters in the owner signup form. Since no authentication is required to access the signup page, this presents a pre-authentication attack vector that can be exploited by any network-accessible attacker.

The exploitation technique involves inserting SQL metacharacters and commands into the vulnerable parameters, causing the backend database to execute unintended queries. Common attack payloads include UNION-based injection for data extraction, boolean-based blind injection for enumeration, and time-based techniques for data exfiltration when direct output is not available.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-12943

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual SQL syntax patterns in web server access logs targeting /ownersignup.php
• Database query logs showing unexpected UNION SELECT, SLEEP(), or BENCHMARK() functions
• Anomalous database access patterns or data extraction attempts from the rental management application
• HTTP requests with encoded SQL keywords (e.g., %27, %3D, %2D%2D) in signup form parameters

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect SQL injection patterns in requests to /ownersignup.php
• Monitor database logs for unusual query structures, error messages, or execution times
• Deploy application-layer intrusion detection to flag requests containing SQL metacharacters in form fields
• Configure SIEM alerts for patterns matching common SQL injection attack payloads

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable verbose logging on the web server for all requests to the House Rental Management System
• Implement database activity monitoring to track queries originating from the web application
• Review authentication logs for anomalous access patterns that may indicate successful database compromise
• Monitor for data exfiltration indicators such as unusually large response sizes from the application

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-12943

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to the House Rental Management System to trusted IP ranges only
• Implement a Web Application Firewall with SQL injection prevention rules in front of the application
• Review and audit database permissions to limit the web application's database user privileges
• Consider taking the vulnerable endpoint offline until a patch is available or a code fix is implemented

Patch Information

As of the last update on 2025-04-03, no official vendor patch has been publicly documented for this vulnerability. Organizations using CodeAstro House Rental Management System should monitor the CodeAstro Security Resource for security updates. Additional technical details about this vulnerability can be found at the GitHub CVE Issue Tracker and VulDB #289303.

Workarounds

• Implement server-side input validation to sanitize all user input before database queries
• Modify the source code of /ownersignup.php to use prepared statements with parameterized queries
• Deploy a reverse proxy or WAF to filter malicious requests before they reach the application
• Apply the principle of least privilege to database accounts used by the application to minimize impact

# Example WAF rule configuration for ModSecurity
# Block common SQL injection patterns in request parameters
SecRule ARGS "@detectSQLi" \
    "id:1001,\
    phase:2,\
    block,\
    msg:'SQL Injection Attack Detected - CVE-2024-12943',\
    logdata:'Matched Data: %{MATCHED_VAR} found within %{MATCHED_VAR_NAME}',\
    severity:'CRITICAL',\
    setvar:'tx.sql_injection_score=+%{tx.critical_anomaly_score}'"