CVE-2025-2659: Online Time Table Generator SQLi Vulnerability

CVE-2025-2659 Overview

A critical SQL Injection vulnerability has been identified in Project Worlds Online Time Table Generator version 1.0. The vulnerability exists in the /student/index.php file, where the e parameter is improperly handled, allowing attackers to inject malicious SQL commands. This flaw enables remote attackers to manipulate database queries without authentication, potentially compromising the integrity and confidentiality of the underlying database.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated remote attackers can exploit this SQL Injection vulnerability to extract sensitive data, modify database records, or potentially gain unauthorized access to the application's backend systems.

Affected Products

• Project Worlds Online Time Table Generator 1.0
• Projectworlds Online Time Table Generator (all installations using affected version)

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-03-23 - CVE-2025-2659 published to NVD
• 2025-07-09 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-2659

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is a classic SQL Injection flaw (CWE-89) combined with improper neutralization of special elements (CWE-74). The affected component, /student/index.php, fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input in the e parameter before incorporating it into SQL queries. This allows attackers to craft malicious input that alters the intended SQL query logic.

The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it requires no authentication and can be exploited remotely over the network. The exploit has been publicly disclosed, increasing the risk of exploitation in the wild. Successful exploitation could lead to unauthorized data access, data manipulation, or in severe cases, complete database compromise.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is improper input validation and the lack of parameterized queries or prepared statements in the application's code. The e parameter value is directly concatenated into SQL queries without proper sanitization or escaping of special SQL characters. This allows attackers to inject arbitrary SQL syntax that gets executed by the database engine.

Attack Vector

The attack can be initiated remotely over the network without requiring any authentication or user interaction. An attacker would craft a malicious HTTP request to the /student/index.php endpoint with a specially crafted e parameter containing SQL injection payloads.

Typical attack scenarios include:

• Union-based injection to extract data from other database tables
• Boolean-based blind injection to enumerate database contents
• Time-based blind injection for data exfiltration when no direct output is visible
• Stacked queries to execute additional SQL statements (if supported by the database driver)

The vulnerability allows for potential read access to sensitive information, modification of existing data, and in some configurations, complete compromise of the database server.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-2659

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual SQL syntax patterns in web server access logs targeting /student/index.php
• Abnormal database query patterns or errors in database logs
• Unexpected outbound connections from the database server
• Modified or missing data in the application database
• Web requests containing SQL keywords like UNION, SELECT, OR 1=1, --, or encoded variants in the e parameter

Detection Strategies

• Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block SQL injection patterns targeting the e parameter
• Implement database activity monitoring to detect anomalous query patterns
• Configure intrusion detection systems (IDS) with signatures for common SQL injection payloads
• Enable detailed logging on the web server and monitor for suspicious requests to /student/index.php

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor web application logs for requests to /student/index.php with suspicious e parameter values
• Set up alerts for database errors that may indicate SQL injection attempts
• Track database query execution times for anomalies that could indicate time-based blind injection attacks
• Review authentication logs for signs of unauthorized access following potential exploitation

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-2659

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict access to the vulnerable /student/index.php endpoint through network-level controls or web server configuration
• Implement input validation and sanitization for the e parameter at the application level if source code access is available
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with SQL injection protection rules
• Review database logs and access records for evidence of prior exploitation
• Consider taking the application offline until a patch is available or the vulnerability is remediated

Patch Information

At the time of this writing, no official vendor patch has been released for this vulnerability. Organizations using Project Worlds Online Time Table Generator should monitor the vendor for security updates and apply patches as soon as they become available.

For additional technical details, refer to the GitHub CVE Issue Discussion and the VulDB advisory.

Workarounds

• Implement prepared statements or parameterized queries in the application code to prevent SQL injection
• Add input validation to reject any special SQL characters in the e parameter
• Deploy network segmentation to limit database access from the web application tier
• Use a WAF configured with strict SQL injection filtering rules for the affected endpoint
• Implement least privilege database access principles to minimize the impact of successful exploitation

# Example: Block access to vulnerable endpoint using Apache .htaccess
<Files "index.php">
    <If "%{QUERY_STRING} =~ /e=/">
        Require all denied
    </If>
</Files>

# Example: Nginx location block to restrict access
location /student/index.php {
    # Deny requests with suspicious e parameter patterns
    if ($arg_e ~* "(union|select|insert|update|delete|drop|;|--)") {
        return 403;
    }
}