CVE-2025-40682: HR Management System SQLi Vulnerability

CVE-2025-40682 Overview

CVE-2025-40682 is a SQL injection vulnerability affecting the Human Resource Management System version 1.0 developed by oretnom23. The vulnerability exists in the /controller/ccity.php endpoint and allows authenticated attackers to manipulate database operations through the city and state parameters. Successful exploitation enables attackers to retrieve, create, update, and delete database contents, potentially compromising sensitive employee data and organizational information stored within the HR system.

Critical Impact

Attackers can fully compromise the database backend, enabling unauthorized access to sensitive employee records, payroll information, and administrative credentials through SQL injection attacks.

Affected Products

• Human Resource Management System version 1.0 by oretnom23
• Systems running the vulnerable /controller/ccity.php endpoint
• Web deployments accepting user input via city and state parameters

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-07-29 - CVE-2025-40682 published to NVD
• 2025-08-04 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-40682

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL injection vulnerability occurs when user-supplied input from the city and state parameters is incorporated into SQL queries without proper sanitization or parameterization. The vulnerable endpoint /controller/ccity.php directly concatenates user input into database queries, enabling attackers to inject malicious SQL statements.

The attack requires network access and low-privilege authentication to the application. Once exploited, attackers gain the ability to perform unauthorized database operations including data extraction, modification, and deletion. Given the sensitive nature of HR systems—which typically contain personal employee information, salary data, and organizational records—successful exploitation poses significant risks to data confidentiality and integrity.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper input validation and the use of dynamic SQL query construction (CWE-89). The application fails to sanitize user-supplied values in the city and state parameters before incorporating them into SQL statements. Instead of using prepared statements or parameterized queries, the code likely concatenates raw input directly into the query string, creating the injection point.

Attack Vector

The attack is network-based and targets the /controller/ccity.php endpoint. An authenticated attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests containing SQL injection payloads within the city or state parameters. These payloads can manipulate the underlying SQL query logic to perform unauthorized operations such as:

• Extracting sensitive data using UNION-based or blind SQL injection techniques
• Modifying existing records to alter employee information
• Deleting database contents to cause data loss
• Potentially escalating privileges by accessing administrative credentials stored in the database

The vulnerability affects the database interaction layer where city and state information is processed, likely in functionality related to location management within the HR system.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-40682

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual SQL error messages in application logs related to the /controller/ccity.php endpoint
• Abnormal database query patterns involving the city or state fields
• Unexpected data modifications or deletions in location-related database tables
• Web server access logs showing requests to /controller/ccity.php with suspicious parameter values containing SQL syntax

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect SQL injection patterns in the city and state parameters
• Monitor database query logs for anomalous statements originating from the HR application
• Deploy application-level logging to capture and alert on malformed input attempts
• Use intrusion detection systems (IDS) with signatures for common SQL injection attack patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable verbose logging on the web server and database to capture request parameters and query execution
• Set up alerts for database errors and exceptions that may indicate injection attempts
• Monitor for unusual database access patterns, particularly bulk data extraction or administrative operations
• Review access logs regularly for requests containing SQL metacharacters in URL parameters

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-40682

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict access to the Human Resource Management System to trusted networks only
• Implement input validation to reject SQL metacharacters in the city and state parameters
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall with SQL injection detection rules
• Review database permissions to limit the application's database user privileges to minimum required operations

Patch Information

No official vendor patch has been released at this time. Organizations should consult the INCIBE Security Notice for the latest information on remediation options and monitor for any updates from the vendor.

Workarounds

• Implement prepared statements or parameterized queries in the /controller/ccity.php file to prevent SQL injection
• Apply strict input validation using allowlists for acceptable city and state values
• Use stored procedures with parameterized inputs to isolate database operations from user input
• Consider deploying the application behind a reverse proxy with SQL injection filtering capabilities
• Limit database user permissions to prevent DELETE and administrative operations from the web application context

# Example WAF rule for ModSecurity to block SQL injection attempts
SecRule ARGS:city|ARGS:state "@rx (?i)(union|select|insert|update|delete|drop|truncate|exec|declare|xp_)" \
    "id:100001,phase:2,deny,status:403,msg:'SQL Injection Attempt Blocked in HRMS'"