CVE-2025-12215: Online Shopping System SQLi Vulnerability

CVE-2025-12215 Overview

A SQL Injection vulnerability has been discovered in Projectworlds Online Shopping System version 1.0. The vulnerability exists in the /login_submit.php file, where the keywords parameter is not properly sanitized before being used in SQL queries. This allows remote attackers to inject malicious SQL commands, potentially compromising the entire database and gaining unauthorized access to sensitive user information.

Critical Impact

Remote attackers can exploit this SQL injection flaw to extract sensitive data, modify database contents, or potentially gain unauthorized access to the underlying system through database manipulation.

Affected Products

• Projectworlds Online Shopping System 1.0

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-10-27 - CVE-2025-12215 published to NVD
• 2026-02-24 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-12215

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-89 (SQL Injection) and CWE-74 (Injection). The flaw resides in the login functionality of the Online Shopping System, specifically in the /login_submit.php script. When user-supplied input through the keywords parameter is processed, the application fails to properly sanitize or parameterize the input before incorporating it into SQL queries.

SQL injection vulnerabilities in login mechanisms are particularly dangerous as they can allow attackers to bypass authentication entirely, enumerate user accounts, extract password hashes, or escalate privileges within the application.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is improper input validation and the absence of parameterized queries (prepared statements) in the PHP code handling the keywords argument. The application directly concatenates user input into SQL query strings without sanitization, allowing attackers to break out of the intended query structure and inject arbitrary SQL commands.

Attack Vector

The vulnerability can be exploited remotely over the network without requiring any authentication or user interaction. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests containing SQL injection payloads in the keywords parameter of /login_submit.php.

The attack involves sending specially crafted input that manipulates the SQL query logic. For example, an attacker could inject SQL syntax that modifies the WHERE clause conditions, uses UNION-based techniques to extract data from other tables, or leverages time-based blind injection to infer database contents character by character.

Technical details and proof-of-concept information are available in the GitHub Issue Report.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-12215

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual SQL error messages in application logs referencing /login_submit.php
• HTTP requests to /login_submit.php containing SQL syntax characters such as single quotes ('), double dashes (--), or UNION SELECT statements in the keywords parameter
• Database query logs showing malformed or unexpected queries originating from the login functionality
• Evidence of data exfiltration or unauthorized database access following login attempts

Detection Strategies

• Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block SQL injection patterns in HTTP request parameters
• Implement application-level logging to capture all requests to /login_submit.php and flag those containing suspicious characters or SQL keywords
• Configure database activity monitoring to alert on unusual query patterns, failed queries, or queries returning abnormally large result sets
• Use intrusion detection systems (IDS) with signatures for common SQL injection attack patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor web server access logs for repeated requests to /login_submit.php with varying payloads, indicating automated scanning or exploitation attempts
• Set up alerts for database errors that include SQL syntax error messages, which may indicate injection attempts
• Track authentication events for anomalies such as successful logins from unexpected sources following failed attempts
• Review database audit logs for queries accessing sensitive tables like user credentials or payment information

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-12215

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to the affected Online Shopping System to trusted IP addresses only until a patch is applied
• Implement WAF rules to block requests containing SQL injection patterns targeting /login_submit.php
• Review and audit database logs for any signs of prior exploitation or data exfiltration
• Consider temporarily disabling the affected login functionality if alternative authentication methods are available

Patch Information

No official vendor patch is currently available for Projectworlds Online Shopping System 1.0. Organizations using this software should monitor the vendor and community resources for updates. Additional vulnerability details can be found at VulDB #329885.

Workarounds

• Implement server-side input validation to sanitize the keywords parameter, stripping or escaping SQL special characters
• Modify the vulnerable PHP code to use prepared statements with parameterized queries instead of string concatenation
• Deploy a reverse proxy or WAF to filter malicious requests before they reach the application
• Restrict database user privileges used by the application to the minimum necessary, limiting potential damage from successful injection attacks

# Example: Apache mod_security rule to block SQL injection attempts
SecRule ARGS:keywords "@detectSQLi" \
  "id:1001,\
  phase:2,\
  deny,\
  status:403,\
  log,\
  msg:'SQL Injection attempt detected in keywords parameter'"