CVE-2025-10025: PHPGurukul Course Registration SQL Injection

CVE-2025-10025 Overview

A SQL Injection vulnerability has been identified in PHPGurukul Online Course Registration version 3.1. The vulnerability exists in an unknown function of the file /admin/semester.php, where improper handling of the semester argument allows attackers to inject malicious SQL commands. This flaw can be exploited remotely without authentication, potentially enabling unauthorized database access, data manipulation, or extraction of sensitive information.

Critical Impact

Remote attackers can exploit this SQL Injection vulnerability to bypass authentication, access sensitive data, modify database contents, or potentially gain further system access through the vulnerable /admin/semester.php endpoint.

Affected Products

• PHPGurukul Online Course Registration 3.1

Discovery Timeline

• September 5, 2025 - CVE-2025-10025 published to NVD
• September 10, 2025 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-10025

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability represents a classic SQL Injection flaw (CWE-89) resulting from improper neutralization of special elements used in SQL commands. The vulnerable endpoint /admin/semester.php fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input for the semester parameter before incorporating it into SQL queries. This allows attackers to manipulate the query structure by injecting malicious SQL syntax, potentially gaining unauthorized access to the underlying database.

The exploitation is network-accessible with low attack complexity, requiring no authentication or user interaction. The exploit has been publicly disclosed, increasing the risk of active exploitation in the wild.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper input validation and lack of parameterized queries (CWE-74: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component). The semester parameter is directly concatenated into SQL statements without proper sanitization or the use of prepared statements. This allows special SQL characters and commands to be interpreted as part of the query logic rather than as data.

Attack Vector

The attack is conducted remotely over the network. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests to the /admin/semester.php endpoint with specially crafted SQL syntax in the semester parameter. The injected payload is processed by the backend database, allowing the attacker to:

• Extract sensitive data from the database (usernames, passwords, course information)
• Modify or delete database records
• Bypass authentication mechanisms
• Potentially escalate to remote code execution depending on database configuration

The vulnerability can be exploited by sending crafted GET or POST requests containing SQL injection payloads in the semester parameter. Techniques such as UNION-based injection, boolean-based blind injection, or time-based blind injection may be applicable depending on the application's response behavior. For detailed technical analysis, refer to the GitHub Issue Discussion and VulDB entry #322740.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-10025

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual or malformed requests to /admin/semester.php containing SQL syntax characters such as single quotes ('), double dashes (--), or UNION SELECT statements
• Database error messages in application logs indicating SQL syntax errors
• Unexpected database queries or access patterns in database logs
• Evidence of data exfiltration or unauthorized database modifications

Detection Strategies

• Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block SQL injection patterns in requests to /admin/semester.php
• Monitor web server access logs for suspicious request patterns containing SQL keywords (SELECT, UNION, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, DROP)
• Implement database activity monitoring to detect anomalous query patterns
• Configure intrusion detection systems (IDS) with signatures for SQL injection attacks

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging for the web application and database to capture request parameters and query execution
• Set up alerts for failed login attempts or authentication anomalies that may indicate SQL injection-based bypass attempts
• Monitor for unusual data access patterns or bulk data retrieval from the database
• Implement real-time log analysis to detect SQL injection attack signatures

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-10025

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict access to the /admin/semester.php endpoint by implementing IP whitelisting or additional authentication controls
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with SQL injection protection rules
• If the application is not critical, consider temporarily disabling access to the vulnerable admin interface until a patch is available
• Review and audit database permissions to ensure the application uses least-privilege database accounts

Patch Information

No official patch has been released by PHPGurukul at the time of this writing. Monitor the PHPGurukul website for security updates. Organizations should consider upgrading to a patched version once available or implementing the workarounds described below.

Workarounds

• Implement input validation by sanitizing the semester parameter to allow only expected characters (alphanumeric values)
• Refactor the vulnerable code to use parameterized queries or prepared statements instead of string concatenation
• Deploy a reverse proxy or WAF with SQL injection filtering capabilities in front of the application
• Restrict network access to the admin panel to trusted IP addresses only

# Example: Apache .htaccess to restrict admin access
<Directory "/var/www/html/admin">
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from 192.168.1.0/24
    Allow from 10.0.0.0/8
</Directory>