CVE-2024-2569: Employee Task Management System RCE Flaw

CVE-2024-2569 Overview

A critical Execution After Redirect (EAR) vulnerability has been discovered in SourceCodester Employee Task Management System version 1.0. This vulnerability affects the /admin-manage-user.php file and allows remote attackers to bypass authentication and authorization controls through improper redirect handling. The vulnerability has been publicly disclosed and exploit information is available, making it a high-priority security concern for organizations using this software.

Critical Impact

Attackers can bypass access controls by exploiting improper redirect handling in the admin user management functionality, potentially gaining unauthorized access to administrative operations without authentication.

Affected Products

• SourceCodester Employee Task Management System 1.0
• oretnom23 employee_task_management_system

Discovery Timeline

• 2024-03-18 - CVE-2024-2569 published to NVD
• 2025-05-14 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-2569

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as an Execution After Redirect (EAR) flaw (CWE-698), which occurs when the application fails to properly terminate execution after sending a redirect response. In the context of the Employee Task Management System, the /admin-manage-user.php endpoint improperly handles redirect logic, allowing attackers to continue executing code or accessing functionality that should be restricted to authenticated administrators.

When a user attempts to access the admin user management page without proper authentication, the application sends a redirect header but continues processing the request. This allows an attacker to intercept and process the response body, which may contain sensitive data or allow execution of privileged operations despite the redirect instruction.

Root Cause

The root cause lies in improper implementation of access control within the /admin-manage-user.php file. The application fails to call exit() or die() after issuing a redirect header when authentication checks fail. This programming oversight allows PHP script execution to continue past the point where the redirect is issued, enabling attackers to capture and utilize the response that would normally be hidden by the browser redirect.

Attack Vector

The attack can be launched remotely over the network without requiring any authentication or user interaction. An attacker can directly request the vulnerable endpoint /admin-manage-user.php and, even if a redirect header is sent, the server continues processing and returns sensitive data or performs privileged operations in the response body.

The exploitation is straightforward: an attacker uses a tool like curl or a proxy to capture the full HTTP response, bypassing the browser's automatic redirect behavior. This exposes functionality intended only for authenticated administrators, potentially allowing unauthorized user management operations, data extraction, or privilege escalation within the application.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-2569

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual HTTP requests to /admin-manage-user.php from unauthenticated sessions
• HTTP responses containing sensitive data following 302/301 redirect status codes
• Requests using tools that ignore redirects (curl with specific flags, intercepting proxies)
• Multiple rapid requests to admin endpoints from the same IP without valid session cookies

Detection Strategies

• Monitor web server access logs for direct requests to /admin-manage-user.php without preceding authentication events
• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block requests that attempt to process redirect responses
• Deploy SentinelOne Singularity to detect anomalous application behavior and unauthorized access attempts
• Review application logs for user management operations occurring without valid administrative sessions

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging on all admin-prefixed PHP endpoints
• Configure alerting for HTTP 302 responses followed by non-empty response bodies to sensitive endpoints
• Monitor for reconnaissance activity targeting SourceCodester application directories
• Implement session validation monitoring to detect access attempts without proper authentication tokens

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-2569

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict access to /admin-manage-user.php at the web server level using IP whitelisting or additional authentication layers
• Review and audit all admin-prefixed PHP files for similar EAR vulnerabilities
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with rules to enforce proper redirect handling
• Consider taking the Employee Task Management System offline until a patch is applied

Patch Information

No official vendor patch has been released for this vulnerability. Organizations should contact SourceCodester for remediation guidance or consider applying custom fixes. The vulnerability tracking identifier is VDB-257072. Additional technical details are available in the GitHub disclosure.

Workarounds

• Add exit(); or die(); calls immediately after all redirect headers in the affected PHP files
• Implement server-level access controls (.htaccess or nginx configuration) to restrict access to admin endpoints
• Deploy network segmentation to limit exposure of the application to trusted networks only
• Use a reverse proxy to enforce proper redirect handling before requests reach the application

# Apache .htaccess workaround to restrict admin endpoint access
<Files "admin-manage-user.php">
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from 192.168.1.0/24
    # Replace with your trusted admin IP range
</Files>