CVE-2024-6957: University Management System SQLi Vulnerability

CVE-2024-6957 Overview

A critical SQL injection vulnerability has been discovered in itsourcecode University Management System version 1.0. The vulnerability exists in the functions.php file within the Login component, where improper handling of the username parameter allows attackers to inject malicious SQL queries. This flaw enables remote attackers to manipulate database queries without authentication, potentially leading to unauthorized data access, modification, or complete database compromise.

Critical Impact

Remote attackers can exploit this SQL injection vulnerability to bypass authentication, extract sensitive student and faculty data, modify academic records, or potentially gain administrative access to the university management system.

Affected Products

• itsourcecode University Management System 1.0
• angeljudesuarez university_management_system 1.0

Discovery Timeline

• 2024-07-21 - CVE-2024-6957 published to NVD
• 2024-11-21 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-6957

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL injection vulnerability resides in the authentication mechanism of the University Management System. The functions.php file, which handles login functionality, fails to properly sanitize or parameterize the username input field before incorporating it into SQL queries. This allows an attacker to craft malicious input that alters the intended SQL statement structure, enabling unauthorized database operations.

The vulnerability is exploitable remotely over the network without requiring any prior authentication or user interaction. An attacker can submit specially crafted payloads through the login form's username field to execute arbitrary SQL commands against the backend database. The exploit has been publicly disclosed, increasing the risk of active exploitation in the wild.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is the lack of proper input validation and the use of unsanitized user input directly within SQL query construction. The application fails to implement prepared statements or parameterized queries when processing the username parameter in functions.php. This classic SQL injection pattern (CWE-89) occurs when developers concatenate user-supplied input directly into SQL strings rather than using secure database access methods.

Attack Vector

The attack can be initiated remotely over the network by targeting the login functionality of the University Management System. An attacker does not require any privileges or credentials to exploit this vulnerability. The attack flow involves:

1. Accessing the login page of the University Management System
2. Injecting SQL payloads into the username form field
3. Submitting the form to trigger the vulnerable code path in functions.php
4. The malicious SQL is executed against the database, potentially allowing authentication bypass, data extraction, or database manipulation

The attacker could use standard SQL injection techniques such as UNION-based injection for data extraction, boolean-based blind injection for data enumeration, or time-based blind injection for fingerprinting. Authentication bypass can typically be achieved with simple payloads that manipulate the WHERE clause logic.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-6957

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual SQL syntax patterns in web server access logs targeting the login endpoint or functions.php
• Multiple failed login attempts followed by successful authentication from the same source
• Database query logs showing unexpected UNION SELECT, OR 1=1, or comment sequences (-- or /*)
• Abnormal database read operations or bulk data extraction patterns

Detection Strategies

• Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block common SQL injection patterns in POST parameters
• Monitor authentication logs for anomalous login patterns, particularly successful logins without valid credential verification
• Implement database activity monitoring to detect unusual query patterns or unauthorized data access
• Review web server logs for requests containing SQL keywords in the username parameter

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging on the database server to capture all queries executed through the application
• Configure real-time alerting for SQL injection signature matches in WAF or IDS/IPS systems
• Monitor for unauthorized access to sensitive database tables containing student records, grades, or faculty information
• Implement anomaly detection for login success rates and authentication patterns

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-6957

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to the University Management System login page to trusted IP ranges or internal networks only
• Deploy WAF rules specifically targeting SQL injection patterns in the username parameter
• Consider temporarily disabling the vulnerable login functionality until a patch is applied
• Audit database access logs for any signs of prior exploitation

Patch Information

No official vendor patch has been released for this vulnerability at the time of publication. Organizations using itsourcecode University Management System 1.0 should contact the vendor for remediation guidance or consider implementing the workarounds below. Technical details about this vulnerability are available through the VulDB advisory and the GitHub CVE documentation.

Workarounds

• Implement input validation on the username parameter to reject SQL metacharacters and suspicious patterns
• Modify functions.php to use prepared statements or parameterized queries for all database interactions
• Apply the principle of least privilege to the database user account used by the application
• Deploy a reverse proxy or WAF with SQL injection filtering capabilities in front of the application

# Example WAF rule configuration for ModSecurity
SecRule ARGS:username "@rx (?i)(\b(union|select|insert|update|delete|drop|truncate)\b|--|\/\*|\*\/|')" \
    "id:100001,phase:2,deny,status:403,msg:'SQL Injection Attempt Detected in Username Parameter'"