CVE-2025-4781: Park Ticketing Management System SQLi Flaw

CVE-2025-4781 Overview

CVE-2025-4781 is a SQL injection vulnerability in PHPGurukul Park Ticketing Management System 2.0. The flaw exists in the /forgot-password.php script, where the email and contactno parameters are passed to backend SQL queries without proper sanitization. Remote attackers can manipulate these parameters to inject arbitrary SQL statements against the underlying database. The vulnerability has been publicly disclosed, and exploit details are accessible through third-party vulnerability databases. The issue 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, low-privilege attackers can inject SQL through the password-recovery form to read or alter ticketing database contents, including user credentials and ticket records.

Affected Products

PHPGurukul Park Ticketing Management System 2.0
Deployments exposing /forgot-password.php to untrusted networks
Web applications using the unpatched PHPGurukul codebase as a base

Discovery Timeline

2025-05-16 - CVE-2025-4781 published to NVD
2025-05-21 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-4781

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in the password recovery workflow of the Park Ticketing Management System. When a user submits the forgot-password form, the application accepts email and contactno input fields and concatenates them into a SQL lookup query. Because the application does not use parameterized queries or input validation, an attacker can break out of the intended string context and append arbitrary SQL syntax. Successful exploitation allows extraction of database records using techniques such as UNION-based or boolean-based blind injection. The attack requires only network access to the application and a low-privilege context, since the forgot-password endpoint is exposed pre-authentication in typical deployments.

Root Cause

The root cause is unsafe construction of SQL statements in /forgot-password.php. User-controlled values for email and contactno are interpolated directly into a query string instead of being passed as bound parameters to a prepared statement. The absence of input filtering, type enforcement, and escaping allows attacker-supplied metacharacters such as single quotes, comments, and SQL keywords to alter query logic.

Attack Vector

An attacker sends a crafted HTTP POST request to /forgot-password.php with malicious payloads in the email or contactno form fields. Because the endpoint is reachable over the network and does not require authentication, exploitation can be automated using common tooling such as sqlmap. The attacker can enumerate database schema, exfiltrate credentials, or modify records depending on the database account privileges.

No verified proof-of-concept code is available in authoritative sources. Technical write-ups are referenced in the GitHub Issue Discussion and VulDB entry #309078.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-4781

Indicators of Compromise

POST requests to /forgot-password.php containing SQL metacharacters such as ', --, UNION SELECT, SLEEP(, or OR 1=1 in the email or contactno parameters
Web server logs showing repeated forgot-password submissions from a single source IP within short time windows
Database error messages returned to clients referencing MySQL syntax, table names, or column counts
Unexpected outbound traffic from the application server following anomalous requests to the password recovery endpoint

Detection Strategies

Deploy a web application firewall ruleset that inspects POST bodies for SQL injection signatures targeting /forgot-password.php
Enable verbose query logging on the backend MySQL instance and alert on queries containing unbalanced quotes or unexpected UNION operators
Correlate failed login attempts, password reset submissions, and database errors in a centralized log platform to identify probing activity

Monitoring Recommendations

Monitor HTTP 500 responses and database error codes originating from /forgot-password.php
Track request rate and payload entropy on authentication-adjacent endpoints to catch automated injection tooling
Audit MySQL general_log or proxy-layer query logs for read operations targeting users, admin, or credential tables outside normal application flow

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-4781

Immediate Actions Required

Restrict network access to the Park Ticketing Management System until a fix is applied, using IP allowlists or VPN-only access
Disable or remove the /forgot-password.php endpoint if password recovery is not operationally required
Apply a web application firewall rule that blocks SQL metacharacters in the email and contactno parameters
Rotate database credentials and review database audit logs for evidence of prior exploitation

Patch Information

No vendor patch has been published in the referenced advisories at the time of NVD publication. Operators should monitor the PHPGurukul website and the VulDB entry #309078 for updates. Until an official fix is released, code-level remediation requires replacing string concatenation in /forgot-password.php with parameterized queries using PHP PDO or mysqli prepared statements.

Workarounds

Implement server-side input validation that rejects non-email characters in email and non-numeric characters in contactno
Use a reverse proxy or WAF to enforce strict parameter schemas on the forgot-password endpoint
Run the application database account with least privilege, removing FILE, DROP, and write permissions on non-essential tables
Enable prepared-statement enforcement at the ORM or data-access layer if a custom fork is maintained

bash

# Example ModSecurity rule to block SQLi patterns on the vulnerable endpoint
SecRule REQUEST_URI "@streq /forgot-password.php" \
    "phase:2,chain,deny,status:403,id:1004781,msg:'CVE-2025-4781 SQLi attempt'"
    SecRule ARGS:email|ARGS:contactno "@rx (?i)(union(\s)+select|or\s+1=1|--|sleep\(|';)" \
        "t:none,t:urlDecodeUni"