CVE-2025-1870: Mayurik Best Online News Portal SQLi Flaw

CVE-2025-1870 Overview

A SQL injection vulnerability has been discovered in 101news (Mayurik Best Online News Portal) affecting version 1.0. The vulnerability exists in the pagedescription parameter within the admin/aboutus.php file, allowing attackers to inject malicious SQL queries through network-accessible requests without authentication.

Critical Impact

This SQL injection vulnerability enables unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands against the underlying database, potentially leading to complete database compromise, data exfiltration, and unauthorized access to sensitive information.

Affected Products

• Mayurik Best Online News Portal version 1.0
• 101news CMS with vulnerable admin/aboutus.php endpoint

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-03-03 - CVE-2025-1870 published to NVD
• 2025-03-07 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-1870

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as CWE-89 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command), commonly known as SQL Injection. The flaw resides in the administrative interface of the 101news application, specifically within the admin/aboutus.php script.

The vulnerable endpoint fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input in the pagedescription parameter before incorporating it into SQL queries. This allows an attacker to manipulate database queries by injecting specially crafted SQL syntax. The vulnerability is accessible over the network without requiring any authentication or user interaction, making it particularly dangerous for exposed installations.

Successful exploitation could allow attackers to read, modify, or delete database contents, bypass authentication mechanisms, escalate privileges within the application, or potentially execute commands on the underlying operating system depending on database configuration.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is insufficient input validation and lack of parameterized queries in the admin/aboutus.php file. The application directly concatenates user-controlled input from the pagedescription parameter into SQL statements without proper sanitization, escaping, or use of prepared statements. This fundamental coding flaw allows attackers to break out of the intended query structure and inject arbitrary SQL commands.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based, targeting the admin/aboutus.php endpoint via HTTP requests. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP POST or GET requests containing SQL injection payloads in the pagedescription parameter. Since no authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability, any network-accessible instance of the application is at risk.

The attack does not require any user interaction or special conditions, making exploitation straightforward. Attackers can leverage standard SQL injection techniques including UNION-based injection, error-based injection, or blind SQL injection depending on the application's error handling configuration.

For detailed technical information, refer to the INCIBE Notice on Multiple Vulnerabilities.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-1870

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual or malformed HTTP requests to /admin/aboutus.php containing SQL syntax characters such as single quotes, double dashes, UNION, SELECT, or other SQL keywords
• Database error messages appearing in application logs or responses indicating query manipulation
• Unexpected database queries or authentication attempts in database audit logs
• Evidence of data exfiltration or unauthorized database reads in network traffic

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block SQL injection patterns targeting the pagedescription parameter
• Monitor HTTP access logs for requests to admin/aboutus.php containing suspicious SQL keywords or special characters
• Enable database query logging and alert on anomalous query patterns or failed authentication attempts
• Deploy intrusion detection systems with signatures for common SQL injection attack patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging on the web server for all requests to administrative endpoints
• Configure database auditing to track all queries executed against the application database
• Set up alerting for unusual database access patterns or large data retrievals
• Monitor for reconnaissance activity such as repeated requests to administrative paths

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-1870

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to the admin/aboutus.php endpoint using firewall rules or .htaccess configuration
• If possible, take the affected application offline until a patch is available or mitigations are in place
• Implement a Web Application Firewall with SQL injection protection rules
• Review database accounts used by the application and apply least-privilege principles

Patch Information

No official vendor patch information is currently available for this vulnerability. Organizations should monitor the INCIBE advisory for updates and consider contacting the vendor directly for remediation guidance. Given the critical severity, immediate compensating controls are strongly recommended.

Workarounds

• Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to filter malicious SQL injection attempts before they reach the application
• Restrict access to the /admin/ directory to trusted IP addresses only using web server access controls
• Consider disabling or removing the vulnerable aboutus.php functionality if it is not business-critical
• Implement input validation at the application level by modifying the source code to use parameterized queries or prepared statements

# Example Apache .htaccess configuration 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>