CVE-2025-4264: Emergency Ambulance Hiring Portal SQLi Flaw

CVE-2025-4264 Overview

CVE-2025-4264 is a SQL injection vulnerability in PHPGurukul Emergency Ambulance Hiring Portal 1.0. The flaw resides in the /admin/edit-ambulance.php script, where the dconnum parameter is passed to the backend database without proper sanitization. Attackers can manipulate this argument to inject arbitrary SQL statements into the underlying query.

The vulnerability is remotely exploitable over the network and requires no authentication or user interaction. Public disclosure of the exploit technique has occurred through VulDB and a GitHub issue tracker, increasing the likelihood of opportunistic attacks against exposed installations.

Critical Impact
Unauthenticated remote attackers can manipulate the dconnum parameter to inject SQL, enabling database content disclosure, modification, or destruction within the admin interface.

Affected Products

PHPGurukul Emergency Ambulance Hiring Portal 1.0
Component: /admin/edit-ambulance.php
Vulnerable parameter: dconnum

Discovery Timeline

2025-05-05 - CVE-2025-4264 published to NVD
2025-05-07 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-4264

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a SQL Injection flaw classified under [CWE-89] (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command) and [CWE-74] (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component). The affected file /admin/edit-ambulance.php processes the dconnum HTTP parameter and concatenates it directly into a SQL statement.

Attackers supply crafted input containing SQL syntax such as UNION SELECT, boolean predicates, or stacked statements. The database engine interprets these payloads as part of the original query. This allows extraction of admin credentials, ambulance records, and user data stored in the portal's database.

Exploitation is network-based with low attack complexity and requires no privileges. While the affected admin page suggests authentication should be enforced, the CVSS vector indicates no privileges are required, implying the SQL injection is reachable before authentication completes or that admin sessions are easily obtained in default deployments.

Root Cause

The root cause is the absence of parameterized queries or input validation in edit-ambulance.php. PHP code accepts the dconnum value from a request and concatenates it into a dynamic SQL string. There is no use of prepared statements, type casting, or character escaping before query execution.

Attack Vector

The attacker sends an HTTP POST or GET request to /admin/edit-ambulance.php with a malicious payload in the dconnum parameter. The vulnerability manifests in the database query handling logic. See the VulDB advisory #307368 and the GitHub Issue Tracker for proof-of-concept details and request structure.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-4264

Indicators of Compromise

HTTP requests to /admin/edit-ambulance.php containing SQL metacharacters such as single quotes, UNION, SELECT, --, /*, or 0x hex strings in the dconnum parameter.
Web server access logs showing repeated requests to the admin endpoint from a single source with varying dconnum values.
Unexpected database errors or anomalous query response sizes correlated with admin page traffic.

Detection Strategies

Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with SQL injection signature rules targeting query parameter tampering on PHP admin endpoints.
Implement database query logging and alert on queries containing the dconnum column with concatenated literal values or UNION-based syntax.
Correlate web access logs with database audit trails to identify malicious request-to-query mappings.

Monitoring Recommendations

Monitor for outbound data exfiltration patterns following suspicious requests to PHPGurukul admin pages.
Track authentication anomalies on the admin interface, including session creation without valid login workflows.
Alert on schema enumeration queries such as access to information_schema.tables originating from the portal's database user.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-4264

Immediate Actions Required

Restrict access to the /admin/ directory to trusted IP ranges using web server access controls.
Take the Emergency Ambulance Hiring Portal offline if it is internet-facing and not actively required.
Audit the database for unauthorized modifications to ambulance records and administrator accounts.

Patch Information

No official vendor patch is referenced in the CVE record. Organizations running PHPGurukul Emergency Ambulance Hiring Portal 1.0 should monitor the PHP Gurukul Blog for security updates and consider migrating to alternative platforms if a fix is not released.

Workarounds

Manually patch edit-ambulance.php to use PDO prepared statements with bound parameters instead of string concatenation.
Apply input validation that restricts dconnum to expected numeric or formatted values before passing it to the query.
Configure the database account used by the application with least-privilege permissions, removing write access where read-only suffices.
Deploy WAF rules blocking common SQL injection payloads on requests to /admin/edit-ambulance.php.

bash

# Example ModSecurity rule to block SQLi attempts against the vulnerable parameter
SecRule REQUEST_URI "@contains /admin/edit-ambulance.php" \
    "chain,phase:2,deny,status:403,id:1004264,msg:'CVE-2025-4264 SQLi attempt in dconnum'"
    SecRule ARGS:dconnum "@detectSQLi" "t:none,t:urlDecodeUni"