CVE-2025-1873: Best Online News Portal SQLi Vulnerability

CVE-2025-1873 Overview

A SQL injection vulnerability has been identified in 101news (Mayurik Best Online News Portal) affecting version 1.0. The vulnerability exists in the admin/contactus.php file through the pagetitle and pagedescription parameters, allowing unauthenticated attackers to inject malicious SQL queries and potentially compromise the entire database.

Critical Impact

This SQL injection vulnerability enables attackers to bypass authentication, extract sensitive data, modify database contents, and potentially achieve remote code execution through database functions.

Affected Products

• Mayurik Best Online News Portal version 1.0
• 101news CMS version 1.0
• Applications using the vulnerable admin/contactus.php endpoint

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-03-03 - CVE-2025-1873 published to NVD
• 2025-03-07 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-1873

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL injection vulnerability occurs due to insufficient input validation and sanitization in the administrative contact page functionality. The pagetitle and pagedescription parameters in the admin/contactus.php file are directly incorporated into SQL queries without proper parameterization or escaping.

The vulnerability is accessible over the network without requiring authentication or user interaction, making it particularly dangerous for exposed installations. Successful exploitation could lead to complete compromise of database confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2025-1873 is the failure to implement secure coding practices when handling user-supplied input. The application constructs SQL queries by directly concatenating user input from the pagetitle and pagedescription parameters without using prepared statements or parameterized queries. This violates the principle of separating code from data and creates a classic SQL injection attack surface classified under CWE-89 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command).

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based, targeting the admin/contactus.php endpoint. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests containing SQL injection payloads in either the pagetitle or pagedescription parameters. Since no authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability, any attacker with network access to the application can attempt exploitation.

The vulnerability allows for various SQL injection techniques including:

• Union-based injection to extract data from other database tables
• Boolean-based blind injection to infer database contents
• Time-based blind injection for environments where error messages are suppressed
• Stacked queries (depending on database configuration) to execute additional SQL statements

For detailed technical information about exploitation methods, refer to the INCIBE Security Notice.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-1873

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual or malformed HTTP requests targeting /admin/contactus.php containing SQL metacharacters
• Database error messages in application logs indicating SQL syntax errors
• Unexpected database queries or access patterns in database audit logs
• Signs of data exfiltration or unauthorized database modifications

Detection Strategies

• Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect SQL injection patterns in the pagetitle and pagedescription parameters
• Monitor HTTP request logs for suspicious payloads containing SQL keywords such as UNION, SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, or comment sequences like -- and /*
• Enable database query logging and alert on anomalous query patterns or syntax errors
• Implement intrusion detection system (IDS) signatures for common SQL injection attack patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

• Review access logs for requests to admin/contactus.php with abnormally long parameter values or encoded characters
• Monitor for authentication bypass attempts and unauthorized administrative access
• Track database account activity for unusual query execution or data access patterns
• Set up alerts for application errors related to SQL query execution

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-1873

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to the administrative interface (/admin/) using IP whitelisting or VPN requirements
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall with SQL injection protection rules in front of the vulnerable application
• Disable or remove the vulnerable admin/contactus.php file if contact functionality is not critical
• Review database logs for evidence of prior exploitation attempts

Patch Information

At the time of publication, no official patch has been released by the vendor for this vulnerability. Organizations using 101news / Mayurik Best Online News Portal should monitor the INCIBE Security Notice for updates and patch availability.

Workarounds

• Implement input validation at the application layer to reject SQL metacharacters in the vulnerable parameters
• Apply Web Application Firewall rules specifically targeting the pagetitle and pagedescription parameters
• Consider migrating to a more actively maintained content management system if patches are not forthcoming
• Isolate the database server and restrict database user privileges to minimum required operations

# Example: Apache ModSecurity rule to block SQL injection attempts
SecRule ARGS:pagetitle|ARGS:pagedescription "@detectSQLi" \
    "id:1001,phase:2,deny,status:403,msg:'SQL Injection attempt blocked in contactus.php'"