CVE-2025-1871: Best Online News Portal SQLi Vulnerability

CVE-2025-1871 Overview

A critical SQL injection vulnerability has been discovered in 101news (Best Online News Portal) version 1.0 developed by Mayurik. The vulnerability exists in the admin/add-subcategory.php file, where the category and subcategory parameters are not properly sanitized before being used in SQL queries. This allows unauthenticated remote attackers to inject malicious SQL commands, potentially leading to complete database compromise, data exfiltration, and unauthorized access to the content management system.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this SQL injection to extract sensitive data, modify database contents, or potentially achieve remote code execution on the underlying server.

Affected Products

• Mayurik Best Online News Portal version 1.0
• 101news CMS version 1.0

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-03-03 - CVE-2025-1871 published to NVD
• 2025-03-07 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-1871

Vulnerability Analysis

The SQL injection vulnerability in CVE-2025-1871 stems from improper input validation in the administrative section of the 101news content management system. The affected endpoint, admin/add-subcategory.php, accepts user-controlled input through the category and subcategory parameters without implementing proper sanitization or parameterized queries.

When an attacker submits specially crafted input containing SQL metacharacters to these parameters, the malicious payload is concatenated directly into the SQL query string. This allows the attacker to manipulate the query logic, potentially accessing, modifying, or deleting arbitrary data from the backend database.

The vulnerability is classified under CWE-89 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command), which is one of the most common and dangerous web application vulnerabilities. Despite being located in an administrative path, the endpoint appears to lack proper authentication checks, making it accessible to unauthenticated attackers over the network.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is the direct concatenation of user-supplied input into SQL query strings without proper sanitization or the use of parameterized queries (prepared statements). The application fails to validate, escape, or filter the category and subcategory parameters before incorporating them into database queries in the admin/add-subcategory.php file.

Attack Vector

The attack can be executed remotely over the network without requiring any authentication or user interaction. An attacker can craft HTTP requests containing malicious SQL payloads in the category or subcategory parameters and send them directly to the vulnerable endpoint. The attack requires low complexity and no special privileges, making it highly accessible to malicious actors.

The exploitation process typically involves:

1. Identifying the vulnerable endpoint at admin/add-subcategory.php
2. Injecting SQL payloads through the category or subcategory parameters
3. Extracting database schema information through UNION-based or error-based injection
4. Dumping sensitive data including user credentials and session tokens
5. Potentially escalating to remote code execution through database features like INTO OUTFILE or stored procedures

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-1871

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual HTTP requests to admin/add-subcategory.php containing SQL keywords like UNION, SELECT, DROP, INSERT, or comment sequences (--, /**/)
• Database error messages appearing in web server logs or application responses
• Unexpected database queries in MySQL/MariaDB slow query logs or general query logs
• Evidence of data exfiltration or unauthorized database access in application audit logs
• Web application firewall alerts for SQL injection patterns targeting the affected endpoint

Detection Strategies

• Deploy web application firewall (WAF) rules specifically targeting SQL injection patterns in the category and subcategory parameters
• Enable and monitor database query logging to detect anomalous or malicious query patterns
• Implement application-level logging to capture all requests to administrative endpoints
• Use intrusion detection systems (IDS) with signatures for common SQL injection attack patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor access logs for requests to admin/add-subcategory.php from unauthorized IP addresses
• Alert on database queries containing unusual patterns such as stacked queries or time-based injection techniques
• Track failed login attempts and suspicious activity in the administrative panel
• Implement real-time alerting for any SQL errors returned by the application

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-1871

Immediate Actions Required

• Remove or restrict access to the admin/add-subcategory.php endpoint until a patch is available
• Implement network-level access controls to limit administrative endpoint access to trusted IP addresses only
• Deploy a web application firewall with SQL injection protection rules
• Review database logs for signs of past exploitation and assess potential data breach impact
• Consider taking the application offline if it contains sensitive data and cannot be adequately protected

Patch Information

At the time of publication, no official vendor patch has been released for this vulnerability. Organizations using 101news (Best Online News Portal) version 1.0 should consult the INCIBE Security Notice for the latest updates and remediation guidance. Given the critical nature of this vulnerability and the lack of an official fix, affected organizations should strongly consider migrating to an alternative, actively maintained content management system.

Workarounds

• Implement input validation and parameterized queries at the application level as a code-level fix
• Use a reverse proxy or WAF to filter malicious requests before they reach the application
• Restrict database user permissions to the minimum required for application functionality (principle of least privilege)
• Disable the admin/add-subcategory.php functionality entirely if not critical to operations
• Apply network segmentation to isolate the database server from direct internet access

# Example: Apache .htaccess to restrict admin access by IP
<Files "add-subcategory.php">
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from 192.168.1.0/24
    Allow from 10.0.0.0/8
</Files>