CVE-2025-13271: School Fees Payment System SQLi Flaw

CVE-2025-13271 Overview

A SQL Injection vulnerability has been identified in Campcodes School Fees Payment Management System version 1.0. The vulnerability exists in the /ajax.php?action=login endpoint, where insufficient input validation of the Username parameter allows attackers to inject malicious SQL commands. This flaw enables remote attackers to manipulate database queries, potentially leading to unauthorized data access, modification, or deletion.

Critical Impact

Remote attackers can exploit this SQL injection vulnerability to bypass authentication, extract sensitive student and financial records, or manipulate the school's fee payment database without requiring any authentication.

Affected Products

• Campcodes School Fees Payment Management System 1.0

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-11-17 - CVE-2025-13271 published to NVD
• 2025-11-19 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-13271

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL Injection vulnerability (CWE-89) stems from improper neutralization of special elements used in SQL commands within the login functionality. The affected endpoint /ajax.php?action=login processes the Username parameter without adequate sanitization, allowing attackers to inject arbitrary SQL syntax that gets interpreted by the backend database.

The vulnerability is classified under both CWE-74 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component) and CWE-89 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command). This dual classification indicates that the application fails to properly handle user-supplied input before incorporating it into database queries.

Since the vulnerability exists in the login functionality, successful exploitation could allow attackers to bypass authentication entirely, enumerate database contents, extract sensitive student and payment information, or potentially modify financial records within the system.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is the failure to implement proper input validation and parameterized queries in the login processing code. The application directly concatenates user-supplied input from the Username parameter into SQL queries without sanitization, escaping, or the use of prepared statements. This allows special SQL characters and commands to be interpreted as part of the query structure rather than as literal data.

Attack Vector

The attack can be executed remotely over the network without requiring any authentication or user interaction. An attacker can craft a malicious HTTP request to the /ajax.php?action=login endpoint with a specially crafted Username parameter containing SQL injection payloads. Common attack techniques include:

• Authentication bypass using payloads like ' OR '1'='1 or similar boolean-based injections
• Union-based attacks to extract data from other database tables
• Time-based blind SQL injection for data exfiltration when direct output is not visible
• Error-based injection to enumerate database schema information

The exploit has been publicly disclosed as documented in the GitHub CVE Issue Report, increasing the risk of exploitation in the wild.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-13271

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual database query patterns in application logs, particularly involving the login endpoint
• Multiple failed login attempts with SQL syntax characters (', ", --, ;, OR, UNION) in usernames
• Unexpected database errors or timeouts associated with authentication requests
• Evidence of data exfiltration or unauthorized database access in database audit logs

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block SQL injection patterns in POST parameters targeting /ajax.php
• Configure database activity monitoring to alert on unusual query patterns or syntax errors originating from the application
• Enable verbose application logging for the login endpoint to capture and analyze incoming parameters
• Deploy intrusion detection systems with signatures for common SQL injection attack patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor HTTP request logs for the /ajax.php?action=login endpoint, specifically analyzing the Username parameter for injection patterns
• Set up alerts for database query anomalies including unusually long queries, unexpected UNION statements, or comment sequences
• Track failed authentication rates and investigate spikes that may indicate automated injection attempts
• Review database audit logs for unauthorized SELECT statements or schema enumeration queries

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-13271

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict access to the School Fees Payment Management System to trusted networks only using firewall rules
• Implement a Web Application Firewall with SQL injection detection rules in front of the application
• Review and audit database access logs for any signs of previous exploitation
• Consider taking the application offline until a patch is available or mitigations are in place

Patch Information

No official patch information is currently available from Campcodes for this vulnerability. Organizations using the affected software should contact the vendor directly for remediation guidance or consider implementing the workarounds below. Additional technical details can be found in the VulDB advisory.

Workarounds

• Deploy a Web Application Firewall configured to block SQL injection patterns in login requests
• Implement input validation at the network perimeter using a reverse proxy to sanitize the Username parameter
• Restrict network access to the /ajax.php endpoint to authorized IP addresses only
• If source code access is available, implement prepared statements/parameterized queries for all database operations
• Consider replacing the vulnerable authentication module with a secure alternative until an official patch is released

# Example WAF rule for ModSecurity to block SQL injection in login requests
SecRule REQUEST_URI "@contains /ajax.php" \
    "id:100001,phase:2,deny,status:403,\
    chain,msg:'SQL Injection attempt blocked'"
SecRule ARGS:Username "@detectSQLi" \
    "t:none,t:urlDecodeUni,t:htmlEntityDecode"