CVE-2025-13273: School Fees Payment System SQLi Flaw

CVE-2025-13273 Overview

CVE-2025-13273 is a SQL injection vulnerability in Campcodes School Fees Payment Management System 1.0. The flaw exists in the /ajax.php?action=delete_payment endpoint, where the ID parameter is passed to a database query without proper sanitization. An authenticated attacker with low privileges can manipulate this parameter remotely to inject arbitrary SQL statements.

The vulnerability is tracked under [CWE-89] (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command) and [CWE-74] (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output). A public exploit has been disclosed, increasing the risk of opportunistic exploitation against exposed instances.

Critical Impact

Authenticated attackers can inject SQL through the delete_payment endpoint, exposing payment records and underlying database contents.

Affected Products

• Campcodes School Fees Payment Management System 1.0
• Component: /ajax.php endpoint with action=delete_payment
• Vulnerable parameter: ID

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-11-17 - CVE-2025-13273 published to NVD
• 2026-04-29 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-13273

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in the payment deletion handler exposed via /ajax.php?action=delete_payment. The application accepts the ID parameter from the client request and concatenates it directly into an SQL DELETE statement. No parameterized queries or input validation are applied before the value reaches the database driver.

This enables classic in-band SQL injection. An attacker can break out of the intended query context using payloads with quotes, comments, or UNION-based clauses. The result is unauthorized read or modification of payment data, potentially extending to other tables within the same database schema.

The attack requires network access to the web application and low-privileged authenticated access. Because the exploit has been publicly released, attackers can weaponize it without independent research effort.

Root Cause

The root cause is the absence of prepared statements or input sanitization in the delete_payment action. User-controlled input flows directly into a dynamically constructed SQL string, violating the secure coding principle of separating code from data.

Attack Vector

Exploitation occurs over the network through standard HTTP(S) requests. An attacker submits a crafted request to /ajax.php?action=delete_payment with a malicious ID value containing SQL metacharacters. Authentication is required, but the privilege threshold is low, making student or staff accounts sufficient for exploitation.

No verified proof-of-concept code is published in the enriched dataset. See the GitHub CVE Issue Report and VulDB entry #332608 for additional technical context.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-13273

Indicators of Compromise

• HTTP requests to /ajax.php?action=delete_payment containing SQL metacharacters such as single quotes, UNION SELECT, SLEEP(, or inline comments (--, #, /*) in the ID parameter.
• Unexpected DELETE or SELECT statements in MySQL query logs referencing the payments table outside normal application workflows.
• Anomalous database errors returned by ajax.php responses, including syntax errors that leak SQL fragments.

Detection Strategies

• Deploy web application firewall (WAF) rules to inspect the ID parameter on the delete_payment action and block non-numeric or SQL-meta payloads.
• Enable MySQL general query logging or audit logging and alert on DELETE statements containing tautologies (OR 1=1) or stacked queries.
• Correlate authentication events with subsequent ajax.php calls to identify low-privilege accounts performing administrative deletion actions.

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor outbound HTTP error rates and 500-series responses from ajax.php for spikes indicative of injection probing.
• Track request volume per authenticated session against the delete_payment endpoint and flag deviations from baseline behavior.
• Forward web server, application, and database logs to a centralized analytics platform for retroactive hunting against the disclosed indicators.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-13273

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network exposure of the School Fees Payment Management System to trusted internal networks or VPN-accessible segments until a vendor patch is applied.
• Revoke or rotate credentials for low-privileged accounts and enforce strong password policies to limit the pool of accounts that can reach the vulnerable endpoint.
• Review database audit logs for any prior anomalous DELETE or UNION-based queries targeting the payments table.

Patch Information

No vendor security advisory or patch is listed in the enriched data at the time of publication. Consult the CampCodes website for vendor updates and the VulDB CTI Incident Report for tracking remediation status.

Workarounds

• Implement a WAF rule that rejects requests to /ajax.php?action=delete_payment when the ID parameter is not a strictly numeric value.
• Modify the application source to use parameterized queries (PDO::prepare with bound parameters or mysqli_stmt_bind_param) for the delete_payment action.
• Apply principle-of-least-privilege to the database account used by the application, removing DROP, ALTER, and cross-schema permissions.

# Example ModSecurity rule to enforce numeric ID on the vulnerable endpoint
SecRule REQUEST_URI "@contains /ajax.php" \
  "chain,phase:2,deny,status:403,id:1013273,msg:'CVE-2025-13273 SQLi attempt'"
  SecRule ARGS:action "@streq delete_payment" "chain"
  SecRule ARGS:ID "!@rx ^[0-9]+$"