CVE-2026-2553: Hotel Management System SQLi Vulnerability

CVE-2026-2553 Overview

A SQL Injection vulnerability has been discovered in tushar-2223 Hotel-Management-System affecting the /home.php file within the HTTP POST Request Handler component. The vulnerability allows remote attackers to manipulate the Name and Email parameters to execute arbitrary SQL queries against the backend database. The exploit has been publicly disclosed and may be used for attacks. The vendor was contacted early about this disclosure but did not respond.

Critical Impact

Remote attackers can exploit this SQL Injection vulnerability to potentially extract sensitive data, modify database contents, bypass authentication, or compromise the entire database server.

Affected Products

• tushar-2223 Hotel-Management-System (up to commit bb1f3b3666124b888f1e4bcf51b6fba9fbb01d15)
• HTTP POST Request Handler component (/home.php)
• All versions using continuous delivery/rolling releases (no specific version identifiers available)

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-02-16 - CVE-2026-2553 published to NVD
• 2026-02-18 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-2553

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL Injection vulnerability (CWE-74: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component) exists in the Hotel-Management-System's /home.php file. The application fails to properly sanitize user input received through the Name and Email parameters in HTTP POST requests before incorporating them into SQL queries.

The vulnerability is remotely exploitable over the network and requires low privileges to execute. An attacker with network access can send specially crafted POST requests containing malicious SQL payloads that will be executed by the database engine. This can lead to unauthorized data access, data manipulation, or complete database compromise.

The continuous delivery model used by this project means there are no discrete version numbers to track affected releases. The vulnerability was identified in commit bb1f3b3666124b888f1e4bcf51b6fba9fbb01d15 and earlier.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is improper input validation and lack of parameterized queries in the /home.php HTTP POST Request Handler. User-supplied data from the Name and Email form fields is directly concatenated into SQL queries without proper sanitization, escaping, or the use of prepared statements. This allows attackers to inject malicious SQL syntax that alters the intended query logic.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based, requiring the attacker to send crafted HTTP POST requests to the vulnerable /home.php endpoint. The attacker manipulates the Name or Email parameters to include SQL metacharacters and commands. When the application processes these parameters without proper validation, the injected SQL code is executed against the backend database.

A typical exploitation scenario involves:

1. The attacker identifies the vulnerable form fields (Name and Email) in the hotel management application
2. Malicious SQL payloads are crafted to extract data, bypass authentication, or manipulate records
3. The payload is submitted via HTTP POST to /home.php
4. The unsanitized input is incorporated into a SQL query and executed by the database

For detailed steps to reproduce this vulnerability, refer to the GitHub SQLi Steps to Reproduce documentation. Additional technical details are available in the GitHub SQLi PoC Repository.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-2553

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual or malformed HTTP POST requests to /home.php containing SQL syntax characters (single quotes, double dashes, UNION keywords, etc.)
• Database error messages appearing in application logs or responses indicating SQL syntax errors
• Unexpected database queries in database audit logs, particularly those involving system tables or attempting data extraction
• Anomalous patterns in the Name or Email field values containing encoded SQL payloads

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block common SQL injection patterns in POST parameters
• Enable database query logging and monitor for suspicious query patterns including UNION-based, error-based, or time-based injection attempts
• Deploy intrusion detection signatures targeting SQL injection attacks against the /home.php endpoint
• Implement application-level logging for all form submissions to identify anomalous input patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor HTTP POST traffic to /home.php for requests containing SQL metacharacters or keywords
• Set up alerts for database errors that may indicate injection attempts
• Track and alert on unusual database access patterns or privilege escalation attempts
• Review access logs for repeated requests to the vulnerable endpoint from suspicious IP addresses

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-2553

Immediate Actions Required

• If possible, restrict network access to the Hotel-Management-System application to trusted users only
• Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) in front of the application with SQL injection protection rules
• Consider temporarily disabling the vulnerable /home.php functionality if not critical to operations
• Apply input validation at the network perimeter using reverse proxy rules

Patch Information

No official patch is currently available from the vendor. The vendor was contacted early about this disclosure but did not respond. Since this project uses continuous delivery with rolling releases, users should monitor the GitHub repository for any security updates or community-provided fixes.

Organizations using this software should consider implementing manual fixes by modifying the vulnerable code to use parameterized queries or prepared statements.

Workarounds

• Implement server-side input validation to sanitize all user inputs before processing
• Use prepared statements or parameterized queries in the PHP code to prevent SQL injection
• Deploy application-layer filtering to block requests containing SQL injection patterns
• Consider replacing the vulnerable component with a secure alternative implementation

# Example: Restricting access to vulnerable endpoint via Apache .htaccess
# Add to .htaccess in the web root directory

<Files "home.php">
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from 192.168.1.0/24
</Files>

# Alternative: Block common SQL injection patterns in mod_security
SecRule ARGS "@detectSQLi" "id:1001,deny,status:403,msg:'SQL Injection Attempt'"