CVE-2025-1872: Best Online News Portal SQLi Vulnerability

CVE-2025-1872 Overview

A SQL injection vulnerability has been identified in 101news (Mayurik Best Online News Portal) version 1.0. The vulnerability exists in the sadminusername parameter within the admin/add-subadmins.php file, allowing attackers to inject malicious SQL statements through user-supplied input.

Critical Impact

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

Affected Products

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

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-03-03 - CVE-2025-1872 published to NVD
• 2025-03-07 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-1872

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL injection vulnerability (CWE-89) affects the administrative sub-admin creation functionality in the 101news content management system. The application fails to properly sanitize user input submitted through the sadminusername parameter in the admin/add-subadmins.php file before incorporating it into SQL queries.

When processing requests to add new sub-administrators, the application directly concatenates user-supplied values into database queries without adequate input validation or parameterized query implementation. This allows attackers to manipulate the SQL query structure by injecting malicious SQL syntax through the vulnerable parameter.

The vulnerability is accessible over the network without requiring authentication or user interaction, making it particularly dangerous for exposed installations. Successful exploitation could result in unauthorized access to sensitive data stored in the database, modification or deletion of database records, and potential escalation to underlying system compromise depending on database configuration.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is improper input validation and the absence of parameterized queries (prepared statements) in the PHP code handling the sub-admin creation functionality. The sadminusername parameter value is directly embedded into SQL query strings without sanitization, escaping, or the use of bound parameters.

This represents a classic input validation failure where the application trusts user-supplied data and fails to implement defense-in-depth measures against SQL injection attacks.

Attack Vector

The attack is network-based, targeting the admin/add-subadmins.php endpoint. An attacker can craft a malicious HTTP request containing SQL injection payloads in the sadminusername parameter. The injection point allows manipulation of the underlying SQL query, enabling various attack techniques including:

• Union-based injection: Extracting data from other database tables
• Boolean-based blind injection: Inferring database content through application responses
• Time-based blind injection: Extracting data by measuring response delays
• Stacked queries: Executing multiple SQL statements if supported by the database driver

The vulnerability allows attackers to bypass authentication, extract sensitive user credentials, modify administrative accounts, or potentially execute operating system commands if database configurations permit.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-1872

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual or malformed requests to /admin/add-subadmins.php containing SQL syntax characters such as single quotes, double dashes, or UNION keywords
• Database logs showing unexpected queries or syntax errors originating from the sub-admin creation functionality
• Unexpected administrative accounts created in the system
• Evidence of data exfiltration or unauthorized database access in server logs

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect SQL injection patterns targeting the sadminusername parameter
• Monitor HTTP request logs for suspicious characters and SQL keywords in POST parameters to admin/add-subadmins.php
• Deploy database activity monitoring to detect anomalous query patterns or unauthorized data access
• Use intrusion detection systems (IDS) with signatures for common SQL injection attack patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging for all requests to administrative endpoints including full parameter values
• Configure database audit logging to track all queries executed against user and authentication tables
• Set up alerting for failed or unusual login attempts following requests to the vulnerable endpoint
• Regularly review access logs for patterns indicative of automated SQL injection scanning tools

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-1872

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict access to the admin/add-subadmins.php endpoint using IP-based access controls or authentication requirements
• Consider taking the administrative interface offline until a patch is applied
• Implement a Web Application Firewall with SQL injection protection rules
• Review database logs for evidence of prior exploitation and rotate all administrative credentials if compromise is suspected

Patch Information

As of the last modification date, no official vendor patch has been published. Organizations should monitor the Incibe Security Notice for updates and patch availability. Given the critical severity of this vulnerability, affected organizations should prioritize implementing workarounds and consider migrating to alternative software if no patch becomes available.

Workarounds

• Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to filter SQL injection payloads in requests to the affected endpoint
• Restrict network access to the /admin/ directory to trusted IP addresses only
• If possible, modify the vulnerable PHP code to use prepared statements with parameterized queries
• Disable or rename the add-subadmins.php file if the sub-admin creation functionality is not required
• Place the administrative interface behind VPN or additional authentication layers

# Apache .htaccess configuration to restrict admin access by IP
<Directory "/var/www/html/admin">
    Require ip 192.168.1.0/24
    Require ip 10.0.0.0/8
</Directory>

# Nginx configuration to restrict admin access
location /admin/ {
    allow 192.168.1.0/24;
    allow 10.0.0.0/8;
    deny all;
}