CVE-2025-9013: PHPGurukul Shopping Portal SQLi Flaw

CVE-2025-9013 Overview

A SQL injection vulnerability has been discovered in PHPGurukul Online Shopping Portal Project version 2.0. This vulnerability affects the password recovery functionality in the file /shopping/password-recovery.php, where improper handling of the emailid parameter allows attackers to inject malicious SQL statements. The attack can be initiated remotely without authentication, and exploit code has been publicly disclosed.

Critical Impact

Attackers can exploit this SQL injection vulnerability to bypass authentication, extract sensitive user data including credentials and personal information, modify database contents, or potentially gain further access to the underlying system.

Affected Products

• PHPGurukul Online Shopping Portal Project 2.0

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-08-15 - CVE-2025-9013 published to NVD
• 2025-08-21 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-9013

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as SQL Injection (CWE-89) with a secondary classification under Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component (CWE-74). The vulnerability exists in the password recovery feature of the PHPGurukul Online Shopping Portal Project, a PHP-based e-commerce application.

The vulnerable endpoint at /shopping/password-recovery.php accepts user input through the emailid parameter without proper sanitization or parameterized queries. When a user submits an email address for password recovery, the application directly incorporates this input into SQL queries, creating an injection point that attackers can exploit.

The network-accessible nature of this vulnerability means any remote attacker can attempt exploitation without requiring prior authentication or user interaction. Successful exploitation could lead to unauthorized data access, data modification, or complete database compromise.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is the failure to properly validate, sanitize, or parameterize user input before incorporating it into SQL queries. The emailid parameter value is likely concatenated directly into a SQL query string, allowing attackers to break out of the intended query structure and inject arbitrary SQL commands.

PHP applications are particularly susceptible to this issue when developers use deprecated functions like mysql_query() with string concatenation instead of using prepared statements with PDO or MySQLi.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based, requiring no authentication or user interaction. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests to the /shopping/password-recovery.php endpoint with specially crafted SQL payloads in the emailid parameter.

The exploitation flow involves submitting a password recovery request with SQL metacharacters (such as single quotes, UNION statements, or boolean-based payloads) in the email field. The injected SQL commands execute with the privileges of the database user configured for the web application, potentially allowing:

• Extraction of user credentials and personal data
• Enumeration of database structure and contents
• Modification or deletion of database records
• In some configurations, execution of system commands through database features

For technical details and proof-of-concept information, refer to the GitHub Issue #3 Discussion and VulDB Incident Report #320044.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-9013

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual or malformed requests to /shopping/password-recovery.php containing SQL syntax such as single quotes, UNION, SELECT, OR, AND, or comment sequences (--, #)
• Web server access logs showing repeated requests to the password recovery endpoint with varying payloads
• Database logs indicating failed or unusual queries originating from the web application
• Unexpected database queries accessing tables beyond the expected scope of password recovery functionality

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block common SQL injection patterns targeting the emailid parameter
• Configure intrusion detection systems (IDS/IPS) to alert on SQL injection signatures in HTTP POST data
• Enable detailed logging on the web server and database server to capture suspicious query patterns
• Deploy application-level monitoring to detect anomalous behavior in the password recovery function

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor web application logs for requests to /shopping/password-recovery.php with abnormal parameter lengths or special characters
• Set up alerts for database errors that may indicate injection attempts, such as syntax errors in queries
• Review database audit logs for queries that deviate from expected patterns during password recovery operations
• Implement rate limiting on the password recovery endpoint to slow automated exploitation attempts

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-9013

Immediate Actions Required

• If possible, disable or restrict access to the /shopping/password-recovery.php functionality until a patch is applied
• Implement input validation on the emailid parameter to accept only properly formatted email addresses
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with SQL injection protection rules as a temporary mitigation
• Review and audit database user permissions to ensure the web application uses least-privilege access

Patch Information

At the time of this writing, no official patch has been released by PHPGurukul for this vulnerability. Organizations using the Online Shopping Portal Project should monitor the PHP Gurukul website for security updates and apply patches as soon as they become available.

For the latest vulnerability details and tracking, see VulDB #320044.

Workarounds

• Modify the vulnerable PHP code to use prepared statements with parameterized queries instead of string concatenation
• Implement server-side input validation to ensure the emailid parameter contains only valid email format characters
• Use PHP's filter_var() function with FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL to validate email input before processing
• Restrict access to the password recovery page using IP whitelisting or additional authentication if the application is used internally

# Example: Apache .htaccess to restrict access to password-recovery.php
<Files "password-recovery.php">
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from 192.168.1.0/24
</Files>