CVE-2024-12944: House Rental Management System SQLi Flaw

CVE-2024-12944 Overview

A critical SQL injection vulnerability has been identified in CodeAstro House Rental Management System version 1.0. The vulnerability exists in the /signin.php file where the authentication parameters (u/p) are not properly sanitized before being used in SQL queries. This flaw allows remote attackers to manipulate database queries, potentially leading to unauthorized access, data theft, or complete system compromise.

Critical Impact

Remote attackers can exploit this SQL injection vulnerability to bypass authentication, extract sensitive data from the database, or potentially gain administrative access to the House Rental Management System without valid credentials.

Affected Products

• CodeAstro House Rental Management System 1.0
• Systems running the vulnerable /signin.php authentication endpoint
• Web applications built on CodeAstro House Rental Management System framework

Discovery Timeline

• 2024-12-26 - CVE-2024-12944 published to NVD
• 2025-04-03 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-12944

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as CWE-74 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component), specifically manifesting as a SQL injection flaw. The vulnerable endpoint /signin.php accepts user credentials through parameters commonly identified as u (username) and p (password). These parameters are directly incorporated into SQL queries without proper sanitization or parameterization.

The attack is network-accessible, requiring no authentication or user interaction, which makes it particularly dangerous for internet-facing deployments. An attacker can craft malicious input containing SQL metacharacters to alter the intended query logic, potentially bypassing authentication entirely or extracting database contents.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is the failure to implement proper input validation and parameterized queries in the authentication mechanism. The /signin.php file directly concatenates user-supplied input into SQL statements, allowing attackers to inject arbitrary SQL code. This represents a fundamental secure coding violation where user input is trusted without sanitization.

Attack Vector

The attack can be launched remotely over the network against the /signin.php endpoint. An attacker would send crafted HTTP requests with malicious SQL payloads in the username or password fields. The exploit has been publicly disclosed, increasing the risk of widespread exploitation. Common attack techniques include:

• Authentication bypass using tautology-based injections
• UNION-based attacks to extract data from other tables
• Time-based blind SQL injection for data exfiltration
• Stacked queries for potential command execution (depending on database configuration)

Since no verified code examples are available for this vulnerability, the attack mechanism involves injecting SQL metacharacters into the authentication parameters. For detailed technical analysis, refer to the GitHub Issue on CVE which documents the vulnerability disclosure.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-12944

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual authentication attempts with SQL metacharacters in login fields (single quotes, double dashes, semicolons)
• Database error messages exposed in HTTP responses from /signin.php
• Anomalous database queries originating from the web application
• Multiple failed login attempts followed by successful authentication without valid credentials

Detection Strategies

• Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect SQL injection patterns in POST requests to /signin.php
• Implement database query logging and monitor for anomalous query patterns
• Enable verbose logging on the application server to capture authentication attempts
• Use intrusion detection systems (IDS) with SQL injection signature detection

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor access logs for requests to /signin.php containing encoded SQL characters
• Set up alerts for database errors that may indicate injection attempts
• Track authentication success rates and investigate sudden changes in patterns
• Review database audit logs for unauthorized data access or modifications

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-12944

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to the House Rental Management System to trusted IP addresses only
• Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with SQL injection protection rules
• Disable or rename the vulnerable /signin.php file if the system is not actively required
• Review database accounts used by the application and ensure least-privilege access

Patch Information

At the time of publication, no official patch has been released by the vendor. Organizations should monitor the CodeAstro Security Resource for security updates. For additional vulnerability details, consult the VulDB #289304 entry.

Workarounds

• Implement input validation at the application level using parameterized queries or prepared statements
• Deploy a reverse proxy with SQL injection filtering capabilities in front of the application
• Consider taking the application offline until a proper fix can be implemented
• If source code access is available, manually patch the /signin.php file to use parameterized queries

# Example WAF rule for ModSecurity to block SQL injection attempts
SecRule REQUEST_URI "@contains /signin.php" \
    "id:100001,phase:2,deny,status:403,\
    chain"
SecRule ARGS "@rx (?i)(union|select|insert|update|delete|drop|--|;)" \
    "t:none,t:urlDecodeUni,t:htmlEntityDecode"