CVE-2025-1874: Best Online News Portal SQLi Vulnerability

CVE-2025-1874 Overview

A SQL injection vulnerability has been identified in 101news (also known as Mayurik Best Online News Portal) affecting version 1.0. The vulnerability exists in the admin/add-category.php file through the "description" parameter, which fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input before incorporating it into SQL queries. This flaw allows attackers to inject malicious SQL statements that can manipulate database operations, potentially leading to unauthorized data access, modification, or complete database compromise.

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 administrative access.

Affected Products

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

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-03-03 - CVE-2025-1874 published to NVD
• 2025-03-07 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-1874

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL injection vulnerability (CWE-89) occurs in the administrative category management functionality of the 101news application. The admin/add-category.php endpoint accepts user input through the "description" parameter without implementing proper input validation or parameterized queries. When an attacker submits specially crafted input containing SQL syntax, the application directly concatenates this malicious input into SQL statements, allowing the attacker to alter query logic.

The vulnerability is accessible over the network without requiring authentication or user interaction, making it particularly dangerous for internet-facing deployments. Successful exploitation can result in complete compromise of database confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is improper input validation and the use of unsafe SQL query construction methods. The application directly incorporates user-supplied data from the "description" parameter into SQL queries without using parameterized queries (prepared statements) or properly escaping special characters. This allows attackers to break out of the intended query context and inject arbitrary SQL commands.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based, targeting the admin/add-category.php endpoint. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests containing SQL injection payloads in the "description" parameter. The vulnerability requires no authentication and no user interaction, allowing attackers to directly submit malicious requests to vulnerable instances. Common exploitation techniques include UNION-based injection to extract data from other tables, blind SQL injection for data exfiltration, and stacked queries to modify or delete database contents.

The vulnerability manifests in the category creation functionality where user-supplied description data is processed. For technical exploitation details, refer to the INCIBE Security Notice.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-1874

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual HTTP POST requests to /admin/add-category.php containing SQL syntax characters such as single quotes, double dashes, semicolons, or UNION keywords
• Database error messages appearing in application logs or HTTP responses indicating SQL syntax errors
• Unexpected database queries or stored procedures being executed
• Evidence of data exfiltration or unauthorized database modifications
• Web application firewall logs showing blocked SQL injection attempts

Detection Strategies

• Deploy web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block SQL injection patterns in the "description" parameter
• Monitor web server access logs for requests to admin/add-category.php containing suspicious payloads
• Implement database activity monitoring to detect anomalous query patterns or unauthorized data access
• Configure intrusion detection systems (IDS) with signatures for common SQL injection attack patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging for the web application and database server to capture request parameters and query execution
• Set up alerts for database errors that may indicate SQL injection attempts
• Monitor for unexpected outbound data transfers that could indicate data exfiltration
• Review authentication logs for any unauthorized administrative access following exploitation attempts

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-1874

Immediate Actions Required

• Remove 101news version 1.0 from production environments until a security patch is available
• Implement web application firewall rules to block SQL injection attempts targeting the vulnerable endpoint
• Restrict network access to the /admin/ directory to trusted IP addresses only
• Review database logs for signs of prior exploitation and assess data integrity
• Consider migrating to an alternative news portal application with better security practices

Patch Information

At the time of publication, no official security patch has been released by the vendor for this vulnerability. Organizations should monitor the INCIBE Security Notice for updates regarding available fixes.

Workarounds

• Implement input validation at the application level to reject input containing SQL metacharacters in the "description" parameter
• Deploy a web application firewall with SQL injection detection rules in front of the application
• Restrict access to administrative endpoints using IP-based access controls or VPN requirements
• If source code access is available, modify the vulnerable code to use parameterized queries or prepared statements

# Example WAF rule for blocking SQL injection in description parameter
# ModSecurity rule example
SecRule ARGS:description "@detectSQLi" \
    "id:100001,\
    phase:2,\
    deny,\
    status:403,\
    log,\
    msg:'SQL Injection attempt detected in description parameter',\
    tag:'application-multi',\
    tag:'language-multi',\
    tag:'attack-sqli'"