CVE-2026-10226: Student Management System SQL Injection

CVE-2026-10226 Overview

CVE-2026-10226 is a SQL injection vulnerability in the open-source student_management_system_by_php project maintained by raisulislamg4 on GitHub. The flaw resides in delete.php, where the user_id, course_id, teacher_id, student_id, and application_id parameters are passed to database queries without proper sanitization. Remote attackers can manipulate these arguments to inject arbitrary SQL statements. The project follows a rolling-release model, so no fixed version identifiers exist. A public exploit has been disclosed, and the maintainer has not responded to the issue report at the time of publication.

Critical Impact
Unauthenticated remote attackers can manipulate SQL queries in delete.php to read, modify, or destroy database records.

Affected Products

raisulislamg4 student_management_system_by_php (rolling release)
Commits up to 310d950e09013d5133c6b9210aff9444382d16d1
delete.php endpoint within the application

Discovery Timeline

2026-06-01 - CVE-2026-10226 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2026-06-01 - Last updated in NVD

Technical Details for CVE-2026-10226

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is classified as Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component [CWE-74], specifically manifesting as SQL injection. The affected delete.php script accepts identifier parameters from HTTP requests and concatenates them directly into SQL DELETE statements. Because the application does not validate input types or use parameterized queries, attacker-supplied SQL fragments are interpreted by the database engine.

Successful exploitation allows attackers to alter WHERE clauses, chain additional statements through UNION operations, or trigger conditional logic that exposes record contents. The impact extends to data confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the underlying student records database.

Root Cause

The root cause is the absence of prepared statements and input validation in delete.php. User-controlled values from user_id, course_id, teacher_id, student_id, and application_id flow directly into dynamically constructed SQL queries. No type casting, allow-list validation, or parameter binding is performed before query execution.

Attack Vector

The attack is launched remotely over the network without authentication or user interaction. An attacker sends a crafted HTTP request to delete.php containing a malicious payload in any of the vulnerable parameters. The injected SQL is executed with the privileges of the application's database account, enabling unauthorized data manipulation or extraction.

No verified exploit code is reproduced here. Refer to the GitHub Issue Tracker and VulDB Vulnerability Details for the public disclosure.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-10226

Indicators of Compromise

Web server access logs showing requests to delete.php containing SQL keywords such as UNION, SELECT, OR 1=1, or quote characters in the user_id, course_id, teacher_id, student_id, or application_id parameters.
Database error responses returned to clients, indicating malformed queries reaching the backend.
Unexpected DELETE operations or table modifications recorded in MySQL general or binary logs.

Detection Strategies

Inspect HTTP request logs for anomalous parameter values containing SQL meta-characters reaching delete.php.
Deploy a web application firewall (WAF) rule set tuned to flag SQL injection payloads targeting numeric identifier parameters.
Correlate web server logs with database audit logs to identify queries that deviate from expected DELETE patterns.

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable MySQL general query logging or audit plugins to capture every statement executed by the application's database user.
Forward web server and database logs to a centralized analytics platform for correlation against known SQL injection signatures.
Alert on repeated requests to delete.php from a single source IP within short time windows, which suggests automated exploitation.

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-10226

Immediate Actions Required

Restrict public network access to the application until a fix is applied, for example by limiting access to trusted IP ranges.
Replace concatenated SQL in delete.php with prepared statements using PDO or mysqli with bound parameters.
Enforce strict integer validation on user_id, course_id, teacher_id, student_id, and application_id before any database interaction.
Reduce the database account's privileges to the minimum required, removing DROP, ALTER, and cross-database access.

Patch Information

No official patch has been released. The maintainer has not responded to the public issue report. Operators should fork the project or apply local code changes that convert vulnerable queries to parameterized statements. Track upstream activity at the GitHub Project Repository.

Workarounds

Place a WAF in front of the application with rules that block SQL meta-characters in numeric parameters.
Implement server-side filters that cast each affected parameter to an integer and reject any non-numeric input.
Disable or remove delete.php if the deletion workflow is not required in your deployment.

bash

# Example PHP code change: use prepared statements in delete.php
# Replace vulnerable concatenation:
#   $sql = "DELETE FROM users WHERE user_id = " . $_GET['user_id'];
# With a parameterized query:
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('DELETE FROM users WHERE user_id = :id');
$stmt->bindValue(':id', (int) $_GET['user_id'], PDO::PARAM_INT);
$stmt->execute();