CVE-2024-5896: Employee Gate Pass Logging System SQLi Flaw

CVE-2024-5896 Overview

A SQL injection vulnerability has been identified in SourceCodester Employee and Visitor Gate Pass Logging System version 1.0. The vulnerability exists in the save_users function within the /classes/Users.php?f=save endpoint. By manipulating the id parameter, an unauthenticated remote attacker can inject malicious SQL commands, potentially leading to unauthorized data access, modification, or deletion of database contents.

Critical Impact

Remote attackers can exploit this SQL injection vulnerability to bypass authentication, extract sensitive employee and visitor data, and potentially compromise the entire database backend of the gate pass logging system.

Affected Products

• SourceCodester Employee and Visitor Gate Pass Logging System 1.0
• oretnom23 employee_and_visitor_gate_pass_logging_system

Discovery Timeline

• 2024-06-12 - CVE-2024-5896 published to NVD
• 2024-11-21 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-5896

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL injection vulnerability (CWE-89) affects the user management functionality within the Employee and Visitor Gate Pass Logging System. The save_users function in /classes/Users.php fails to properly sanitize or parameterize user-supplied input in the id parameter before incorporating it into SQL queries. This allows attackers to inject arbitrary SQL statements that the database server will execute with the privileges of the application's database user.

The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it can be exploited remotely without any authentication requirements. An attacker with network access to the application can craft malicious requests to the vulnerable endpoint, potentially extracting sensitive visitor logs, employee information, or escalating their access within the system.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is improper input validation and the lack of parameterized queries (prepared statements) in the save_users function. The application directly concatenates user-supplied input from the id parameter into SQL query strings without proper sanitization, escaping, or the use of prepared statements with bound parameters.

Attack Vector

The attack is network-accessible and can be launched remotely against any exposed instance of the application. An attacker targets the /classes/Users.php?f=save endpoint and manipulates the id parameter to include SQL injection payloads. The vulnerability requires no authentication or user interaction, making it easily exploitable by automated scanning tools or manual penetration testing.

The exploitation involves sending crafted HTTP requests with malicious SQL syntax in the id parameter. Depending on the database configuration and application behavior, attackers may utilize techniques such as UNION-based injection to extract data, time-based blind injection to enumerate database contents, or stacked queries to execute additional SQL commands.

For detailed technical documentation, refer to the GitHub CVE Documentation and the VulDB advisory.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-5896

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual or malformed requests to /classes/Users.php?f=save containing SQL syntax characters such as single quotes, double dashes, UNION, SELECT, or OR statements
• Database error messages in application logs indicating SQL syntax errors or unexpected query behavior
• Anomalous database queries in database server logs that include suspicious patterns or unauthorized table access
• Evidence of bulk data extraction or unauthorized modifications to user records

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block SQL injection patterns targeting the /classes/Users.php endpoint
• Deploy application-layer intrusion detection systems (IDS) configured with signatures for common SQL injection attack patterns
• Enable detailed logging on the database server and configure alerts for unusual query patterns or error conditions
• Monitor network traffic for large response payloads from the application that may indicate successful data exfiltration

Monitoring Recommendations

• Configure real-time alerting for any requests containing SQL metacharacters directed at the vulnerable endpoint
• Review database audit logs regularly for unauthorized SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE operations
• Implement application performance monitoring to detect unusual database query execution times that may indicate time-based blind SQL injection attempts

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-5896

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to the Employee and Visitor Gate Pass Logging System to trusted IP addresses only
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall with SQL injection protection rules in front of the application
• Consider taking the affected application offline until a proper fix can be applied
• Audit database logs for any evidence of prior exploitation

Patch Information

As of the last update to this vulnerability record, no official patch has been released by the vendor (SourceCodester/oretnom23). Organizations using this software should monitor the vendor's official channels and VulDB entry for patch announcements. Given the nature of this vulnerability in a SourceCodester project, organizations may need to implement their own code fixes or consider alternative software solutions.

Workarounds

• Implement input validation on the id parameter to allow only numeric values
• Modify the application code to use prepared statements with parameterized queries for all database operations
• Deploy network-level access controls to limit exposure of the vulnerable endpoint
• Consider implementing a reverse proxy with request filtering capabilities to sanitize incoming requests

# Example: Apache mod_security rule to block SQL injection attempts
SecRule ARGS:id "(?i)(union|select|insert|update|delete|drop|truncate|exec|benchmark|sleep)" \
    "id:1001,phase:2,deny,status:403,msg:'SQL Injection attempt blocked'"