CVE-2025-65135: School Management System SQLi Vulnerability

CVE-2025-65135 Overview

A time-based blind SQL injection vulnerability has been identified in manikandan580 School-management-system version 1.0. The vulnerability exists in the /studentms/admin/between-date-reprtsdetails.php endpoint, where the fromdate POST parameter is not properly sanitized before being used in SQL queries. This allows unauthenticated attackers to inject malicious SQL commands and extract sensitive data from the underlying database through time-based inference techniques.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can remotely exploit this SQL injection vulnerability to access, modify, or delete sensitive student and administrative data in the school management system database without any user interaction.

Affected Products

• manikandan580 School-management-system 1.0

Discovery Timeline

• April 14, 2026 - CVE-2025-65135 published to NVD
• April 14, 2026 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-65135

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as CWE-89 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command). The affected endpoint /studentms/admin/between-date-reprtsdetails.php accepts user-supplied input through the fromdate POST parameter without implementing proper input validation or parameterized queries. Because the application directly concatenates user input into SQL statements, attackers can craft malicious payloads that manipulate the database query execution.

Time-based blind SQL injection is particularly insidious because it does not require error messages or visible output differences. Instead, attackers infer database content by observing response time delays when injected SQL sleep functions are executed conditionally based on true/false database queries.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is the lack of input sanitization and the use of dynamic SQL query construction. The fromdate parameter value is directly incorporated into SQL queries without being validated, escaped, or passed through prepared statements with parameterized queries. This fundamental coding flaw allows SQL metacharacters to be interpreted as part of the query logic rather than as literal data.

Attack Vector

The attack is network-based and requires no authentication or user interaction. An attacker sends crafted HTTP POST requests to the vulnerable endpoint with malicious SQL payloads in the fromdate parameter. By injecting time-delay functions (such as SLEEP() in MySQL) combined with conditional statements, the attacker can systematically extract database contents character by character by measuring response times.

The vulnerable endpoint /studentms/admin/between-date-reprtsdetails.php processes date range report requests, making it a target for attackers seeking to enumerate student records, administrative credentials, and other sensitive educational institution data.

For detailed technical information about the vulnerability mechanism and proof of concept, refer to the GitHub Security Advisory and PoC Documentation.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-65135

Indicators of Compromise

• HTTP POST requests to /studentms/admin/between-date-reprtsdetails.php containing SQL injection patterns such as SLEEP(), BENCHMARK(), or WAITFOR DELAY in the fromdate parameter
• Abnormally long response times from the web application server that correlate with specific request patterns
• High volume of requests to the affected endpoint from a single source IP with varying fromdate parameter values
• Database query logs showing unusual patterns including conditional sleep statements or UNION-based queries

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block SQL injection patterns in POST parameters targeting the /studentms/admin/ directory
• Enable detailed logging for the vulnerable endpoint and configure alerts for requests containing SQL metacharacters (', ", --, ;, SLEEP, BENCHMARK)
• Deploy database activity monitoring to detect anomalous query patterns indicative of blind SQL injection enumeration
• Utilize intrusion detection systems (IDS) with signatures for time-based SQL injection attack patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor web server access logs for repeated requests to /studentms/admin/between-date-reprtsdetails.php with unusual parameter values
• Set up alerts for database connections that result in extended query execution times without corresponding legitimate operations
• Track failed login attempts and data access patterns that may indicate successful credential extraction through SQL injection

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-65135

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to the /studentms/admin/ directory to trusted IP addresses only using firewall rules or web server configuration
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall with SQL injection detection rules to filter malicious requests before they reach the application
• If feasible, disable or remove the vulnerable between-date-reprtsdetails.php functionality until a patch is applied
• Audit database permissions to ensure the web application database user has minimal required privileges (principle of least privilege)

Patch Information

As of the last NVD update on April 14, 2026, no official vendor patch has been identified for this vulnerability. Users should monitor the project repository for security updates and consider implementing code-level fixes to use prepared statements with parameterized queries for all database interactions.

For additional technical details, refer to the GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2025-65135.

Workarounds

• Implement server-side input validation to reject any fromdate parameter values that do not conform to expected date formats (e.g., YYYY-MM-DD)
• Modify the application code to use prepared statements with parameterized queries instead of string concatenation for SQL queries
• Add additional authentication requirements for accessing the administrative reporting functionality
• Consider using a database proxy or query firewall that can detect and block SQL injection attempts at the database layer

# Example Apache .htaccess restriction for vulnerable directory
<Directory "/var/www/html/studentms/admin">
    # Restrict access to trusted IP addresses only
    Require ip 192.168.1.0/24
    Require ip 10.0.0.0/8
    
    # Block requests with common SQL injection patterns
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (union|select|insert|drop|delete|sleep|benchmark) [NC,OR]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_BODY} (union|select|insert|drop|delete|sleep|benchmark) [NC]
    RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</Directory>