CVE-2025-13297: Internet Lab Management System SQL Inject

CVE-2025-13297 Overview

A SQL injection vulnerability has been identified in itsourcecode Web-Based Internet Laboratory Management System version 1.0. The vulnerability exists within the /course/controller.php file, where an unknown function fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input before incorporating it into SQL queries. This allows 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 extract sensitive data from the database, bypass authentication mechanisms, or potentially compromise the underlying server through advanced SQL injection techniques.

Affected Products

• itsourcecode Web-Based Internet Laboratory Management System 1.0

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-11-17 - CVE-2025-13297 published to NVD
• 2025-11-20 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-13297

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability affects the course controller component of the Web-Based Internet Laboratory Management System. The affected endpoint /course/controller.php processes user input without adequate sanitization or parameterized query implementation. When user-controlled data is concatenated directly into SQL statements, attackers can inject malicious SQL code that alters the intended query logic.

The vulnerability can be exploited remotely without authentication, making it accessible to any attacker with network access to the vulnerable system. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to read sensitive information from the database, modify or delete records, and potentially execute administrative operations depending on the database permissions configured for the application.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is improper input validation and the use of unsafe SQL query construction practices. The application concatenates user-supplied input directly into SQL queries without proper sanitization or the use of prepared statements with parameterized queries. This classic SQL injection pattern (CWE-89) occurs when developers fail to treat user input as untrusted data.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based, allowing remote exploitation without requiring authentication or user interaction. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests to the /course/controller.php endpoint with specially crafted parameters containing SQL injection payloads. These payloads can manipulate the SQL query structure to perform unauthorized operations against the database.

Common exploitation techniques include:

• Union-based injection to extract data from other tables
• Boolean-based blind injection to infer database contents
• Time-based blind injection when direct output is not available
• Stacked queries to execute multiple SQL statements (database-dependent)

For detailed technical information about this vulnerability, refer to the GitHub CVE Issue Discussion where the vulnerability details have been publicly disclosed.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-13297

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual SQL error messages appearing in application logs from /course/controller.php
• Web server access logs showing requests to /course/controller.php with encoded SQL syntax characters such as UNION, SELECT, OR 1=1, or comment sequences
• Database query logs revealing malformed or suspicious queries originating from the course controller
• Unexpected database account lockouts or authentication failures

Detection Strategies

• Deploy web application firewalls (WAF) with SQL injection detection rules monitoring the /course/controller.php endpoint
• Implement database activity monitoring to detect anomalous query patterns including excessive data retrieval or schema enumeration
• Configure intrusion detection systems (IDS) with signatures for common SQL injection payload patterns
• Enable detailed logging on the web server and database to capture request parameters and query execution

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor HTTP request parameters for SQL injection indicators such as single quotes, double dashes, semicolons, and SQL keywords
• Set up alerting for database errors and exceptions that may indicate injection attempts
• Track access patterns to the /course/controller.php file for anomalies in request frequency or parameter sizes
• Review database audit logs regularly for unauthorized data access or privilege escalation attempts

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-13297

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to the affected application to trusted IP ranges only
• Deploy a web application firewall with SQL injection protection rules in front of the vulnerable endpoint
• Consider taking the affected system offline if it contains sensitive data until a proper fix can be implemented
• Review database permissions and ensure the application uses a least-privilege database account

Patch Information

No official patch has been released by the vendor at this time. Monitor the IT Source Code website for security updates. Organizations using this software should implement the workarounds below and consider replacing the vulnerable component with properly secured code.

Workarounds

• Implement input validation at the application level to reject requests containing SQL injection payloads
• If source code access is available, modify /course/controller.php to use prepared statements with parameterized queries
• Deploy network-level access controls to limit exposure of the vulnerable endpoint
• Consider implementing a reverse proxy with request filtering capabilities to sanitize incoming requests

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