CVE-2025-2662: Online Time Table Generator SQLi Flaw

CVE-2025-2662 Overview

CVE-2025-2662 is a SQL injection vulnerability affecting Project Worlds Online Time Table Generator 1.0. The flaw resides in the student/studentdashboard.php file, where the course parameter is incorporated into a database query without proper sanitization. An authenticated remote attacker can manipulate the parameter to inject arbitrary SQL statements. The exploit details have been publicly disclosed, increasing the likelihood of opportunistic attacks against exposed installations. The vulnerability is tracked under CWE-89 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command) and CWE-74 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output).

Critical Impact

Remote attackers with low-privilege access can read, modify, or delete database records by injecting SQL payloads through the course parameter.

Affected Products

• Project Worlds Online Time Table Generator 1.0
• PHP-based deployments using student/studentdashboard.php
• All installations exposing the student dashboard to network access

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-03-23 - CVE-2025-2662 published to NVD
• 2025-07-09 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-2662

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability stems from improper neutralization of user-supplied input within student/studentdashboard.php. The application takes the course argument from an HTTP request and concatenates it directly into a SQL query without parameterized statements or escaping. Attackers can append SQL syntax to alter query logic, extract sensitive data, or manipulate the underlying database. The flaw is exploitable over the network and requires only low privileges, which typically map to a standard student account in this application.

Root Cause

The root cause is the absence of prepared statements or input validation when constructing SQL queries from the course parameter. PHP code passes the parameter directly to the database connector, treating untrusted input as trusted query syntax. This pattern is a classic instance of CWE-89 and reflects insufficient secure coding practices in the project's database interaction layer.

Attack Vector

An attacker authenticated as a student submits a crafted value for the course parameter to student/studentdashboard.php. The injected payload modifies the SQL query executed on the backend, enabling enumeration of database tables, extraction of credentials, or tampering with timetable records. The attack requires no user interaction beyond standard HTTP request submission. Public disclosure of the exploit on the GitHub CVE Issue Tracker and VulDB entry 300678 lowers the barrier to weaponization.

No verified proof-of-concept code is reproduced here. Refer to the VulDB submission for technical specifics of the disclosed payload.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-2662

Indicators of Compromise

• HTTP requests to student/studentdashboard.php containing SQL keywords such as UNION, SELECT, OR 1=1, or comment markers (--, #) in the course parameter.
• Web server access logs showing abnormally long course parameter values or URL-encoded SQL syntax.
• Database error messages returned in HTTP responses originating from the student dashboard endpoint.

Detection Strategies

• Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with rules targeting SQL injection patterns on the course parameter.
• Enable verbose query logging on the backend database and alert on syntactically anomalous queries originating from the application service account.
• Correlate authentication events with subsequent dashboard requests to identify low-privilege accounts probing injection points.

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor outbound database traffic for unusual SELECT statements against authentication or user tables.
• Track HTTP 500 error spikes on studentdashboard.php, which often indicate injection attempts triggering query failures.
• Audit student account activity for repeated requests with parameter mutations consistent with automated SQLi tooling such as sqlmap.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-2662

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to the Online Time Table Generator application until a fix is applied.
• Review web server and database logs for indicators of prior exploitation of the course parameter.
• Rotate database credentials and student account passwords if compromise is suspected.

Patch Information

No vendor patch has been published in the referenced advisories at the time of NVD update on 2025-07-09. Organizations operating Project Worlds Online Time Table Generator 1.0 should monitor the GitHub CVE Issue Tracker for upstream fixes and consider applying source-level remediation by replacing concatenated SQL with prepared statements using PDO or MySQLi parameter binding.

Workarounds

• Implement server-side input validation that restricts the course parameter to an allowlist of expected course identifiers.
• Deploy WAF rules to block requests containing SQL metacharacters in the course parameter.
• Configure the database account used by the application with least-privilege permissions, removing DROP, ALTER, and write access where not required.
• Remove or disable the student dashboard endpoint if it is not essential to operations.

# Example ModSecurity rule to block SQLi attempts against the course parameter
SecRule ARGS:course "@detectSQLi" \
    "id:1002662,phase:2,deny,status:403,\
    msg:'CVE-2025-2662 SQLi attempt on course parameter',\
    logdata:'Matched Data: %{MATCHED_VAR}'"