CVE-2024-7936: Project Expense Monitoring System SQLi Flaw

CVE-2024-7936 Overview

CVE-2024-7936 is a SQL injection vulnerability in itsourcecode Project Expense Monitoring System version 1.0. The flaw resides in the transferred_report.php file, where the start, end, and employee parameters are passed directly into SQL queries without proper sanitization. Remote attackers can exploit this issue over the network with only low privileges required. The exploit details have been publicly disclosed, increasing the risk of opportunistic attacks against exposed deployments. The vulnerability is tracked under CWE-89, Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command.

Critical Impact

Remote attackers with low privileges can manipulate SQL queries through transferred_report.php, potentially leading to unauthorized data access, modification, or disclosure of expense and employee records.

Affected Products

• itsourcecode Project Expense Monitoring System 1.0
• Component: transferred_report.php
• Affected parameters: start, end, employee

Discovery Timeline

• 2024-08-20 - CVE-2024-7936 published to NVD
• 2024-09-03 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-7936

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a SQL injection flaw in the transferred_report.php script of the Project Expense Monitoring System. The application accepts the start, end, and employee request parameters and concatenates them directly into SQL statements. Because the input is not parameterized or sanitized, an attacker can inject arbitrary SQL syntax into the executed query.

The attack requires network access and a low-privilege account but no user interaction. The public disclosure of exploitation details lowers the barrier to active abuse. The EPSS score for this CVE is 0.077%, reflecting limited observed exploitation attempts at this time.

Root Cause

The root cause is the absence of input validation and prepared statements in transferred_report.php. Developer-supplied parameters reach the database layer as raw string concatenation rather than bound parameters. This anti-pattern, classified as CWE-89, allows attacker-controlled input to alter SQL query structure.

Attack Vector

An authenticated attacker sends a crafted HTTP request to transferred_report.php with malicious payloads in the start, end, or employee arguments. The injected SQL is executed against the backend database, enabling data extraction through UNION-based queries, boolean-based blind techniques, or time-based inference. Attackers can target the entire database schema, including expense records and any employee credentials stored within. See the published technical writeup at GitHub CVE3-4 Details and the entry at VulDB #275121 for additional context.

No verified proof-of-concept code is available in the realCodeExamples set, but the exploit pattern follows standard SQL injection against vulnerable GET or POST parameters in PHP applications that use direct query concatenation.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-7936

Indicators of Compromise

• HTTP requests to transferred_report.php containing SQL metacharacters such as single quotes, UNION SELECT, --, OR 1=1, or SLEEP( in the start, end, or employee parameters.
• Unexpected database error messages returned in HTTP responses from the application.
• Anomalous outbound database traffic or large result sets associated with the transferred_report.php endpoint.

Detection Strategies

• Deploy web application firewall (WAF) rules that flag SQL injection signatures targeting transferred_report.php query parameters.
• Enable verbose query logging on the backend database to identify malformed or attacker-shaped statements originating from the application user.
• Correlate web access logs with database audit logs to identify reconnaissance patterns such as repeated parameter mutation.

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor for HTTP 500 responses or database error strings emitted by the application endpoint.
• Track authentication events for accounts repeatedly accessing reporting endpoints outside normal business patterns.
• Alert on long-running database queries triggered through the web tier, which may indicate time-based blind SQL injection.

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-7936

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict access to the Project Expense Monitoring System to trusted networks or VPN users until a fix is applied.
• Audit transferred_report.php and remove direct concatenation of user input into SQL statements.
• Review database audit logs for evidence of prior exploitation of the start, end, or employee parameters.

Patch Information

No vendor-supplied patch or advisory has been published for itsourcecode Project Expense Monitoring System 1.0 at the time of writing. Operators should consider source-level remediation by replacing concatenated SQL with parameterized queries using PHP Data Objects (PDO) or MySQLi prepared statements. Refer to the disclosure record at VulDB CTI ID #275121 for status updates.

Workarounds

• Place the application behind a WAF with SQL injection rule sets enabled and tuned for the transferred_report.php endpoint.
• Apply least-privilege controls on the database account used by the application to limit the impact of successful injection.
• Disable or remove the transferred_report.php reporting feature if it is not required in production.

# Example: minimal ModSecurity rule to block common SQLi tokens against the vulnerable endpoint
SecRule REQUEST_URI "@contains /transferred_report.php" \
  "phase:2,deny,status:403,id:1009001,\
   chain,msg:'Potential SQLi on transferred_report.php'"
  SecRule ARGS:start|ARGS:end|ARGS:employee \
    "@rx (?i)(union(\s|/\*.*\*/)+select|sleep\s*\(|or\s+1=1|--|;)"