CVE-2025-2088: PHPGurukul Pre-school System SQL Injection

CVE-2025-2088 Overview

CVE-2025-2088 is a SQL injection vulnerability in PHPGurukul Pre-School Enrollment System version 1.0. The flaw resides in the /admin/profile.php endpoint, where the fullname, emailid, and mobileNumber parameters are passed to backend database queries without proper sanitization. Remote attackers can manipulate these parameters to inject arbitrary SQL statements. The exploit has been publicly disclosed, increasing the likelihood of opportunistic attacks against exposed installations. The vulnerability maps to [CWE-89] (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command) and [CWE-74] (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output).

Critical Impact
Authenticated administrators or attackers with access to the admin profile page can execute arbitrary SQL queries, potentially exposing or modifying enrollment records, credentials, and other sensitive school data.

Affected Products

PHPGurukul Pre-School Enrollment System 1.0
CPE: cpe:2.3:a:phpgurukul:pre-school_enrollment_system:1.0
Vulnerable component: /admin/profile.php

Discovery Timeline

2025-03-07 - CVE-2025-2088 published to NVD
2025-03-13 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-2088

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability exists within the administrator profile update functionality of the PHPGurukul Pre-School Enrollment System. When an administrator submits profile information, the application accepts the fullname, emailid, and mobileNumber parameters and concatenates them directly into SQL statements executed against the backend MySQL database. No prepared statements, parameterized queries, or input filtering routines are applied before the values reach the query engine. As a result, an attacker can break out of the intended string context and append additional SQL syntax. The flaw is remotely reachable over HTTP and does not require local access to the host.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper neutralization of user-supplied input in dynamic SQL construction within /admin/profile.php. The application relies on raw string concatenation rather than safe database APIs such as PDO prepared statements or mysqli_stmt_bind_param. This pattern is a textbook [CWE-89] failure and is repeated across multiple PHPGurukul applications.

Attack Vector

An attacker who can reach the admin profile page over the network supplies a crafted payload in one of the three affected POST parameters. The injected SQL is parsed by the database server, allowing the attacker to read arbitrary tables through UNION-based extraction, time-based blind techniques, or boolean inference. Successful exploitation can disclose stored credentials, modify enrollment records, or, in some database configurations, write files to disk. Public disclosure of the technique is tracked in the GitHub CVE Issue Tracker and VulDB entry 298902.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-2088

Indicators of Compromise

HTTP POST requests to /admin/profile.php containing SQL meta-characters such as single quotes, UNION SELECT, SLEEP(, BENCHMARK(, or comment sequences -- and # in the fullname, emailid, or mobileNumber fields.
Web server logs showing unusually long response times on /admin/profile.php requests, consistent with time-based blind SQL injection.
Unexpected modifications to administrator records or new privileged accounts in the enrollment database.

Detection Strategies

Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) signature that inspects POST bodies submitted to /admin/profile.php for SQL injection patterns.
Enable MySQL general query logging in non-production environments and alert on queries referencing the admin table with concatenated string literals.
Review authentication logs for administrator logins from unfamiliar source addresses preceding suspicious profile updates.

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward web server, application, and database logs to a centralized analytics platform for correlation across the admin login and profile update flows.
Baseline normal request sizes and parameter character sets for /admin/profile.php, then alert on outliers.
Track outbound database errors surfaced to clients, which often signal successful injection probes.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-2088

Immediate Actions Required

Restrict network access to /admin/ paths using IP allowlists, VPN, or reverse-proxy authentication until a vendor fix is applied.
Rotate administrator credentials and audit the admin table for unauthorized changes.
Deploy WAF rules that block SQL meta-characters in the fullname, emailid, and mobileNumber POST parameters.

Patch Information

No official vendor patch has been published at the time of NVD entry last modification. Monitor the PHP Gurukul Security Resources page and the GitHub CVE Issue Tracker for updates. Organizations running version 1.0 should consider applying source-level fixes by migrating affected queries in /admin/profile.php to parameterized statements using PDO or mysqli prepared statements.

Workarounds

Place the admin interface behind an authenticating reverse proxy or HTTP basic authentication layer to limit exposure.
Implement input validation that rejects non-alphanumeric characters in fullname and mobileNumber, and validates emailid against a strict regular expression before submission.
Apply the principle of least privilege to the MySQL account used by the application, removing FILE, CREATE, and DROP privileges that amplify injection impact.

bash

# Example: hardening the application database user
mysql -u root -p -e "REVOKE FILE, CREATE, DROP, ALTER ON *.* FROM 'preschool_app'@'localhost'; \
                     GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON preschool.* TO 'preschool_app'@'localhost'; \
                     FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"