CVE-2026-3751: Employee Task Management System SQLi Flaw

CVE-2026-3751 Overview

A SQL Injection vulnerability has been identified in SourceCodester Employee Task Management System version 1.0. The vulnerability exists in the /daily-attendance-report.php file within the GET Parameter Handler component. Manipulation of the Date parameter allows attackers to inject arbitrary SQL commands, potentially leading to unauthorized data access, modification, or deletion. The attack can be performed remotely, and a public exploit is available.

Critical Impact

Remote attackers can exploit this SQL injection vulnerability to extract sensitive employee data, modify database records, or potentially compromise the underlying database server through malicious SQL queries.

Affected Products

• SourceCodester Employee Task Management System 1.0
• oretnom23 employee_task_management_system

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-03-08 - CVE CVE-2026-3751 published to NVD
• 2026-03-09 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-3751

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL Injection vulnerability (CWE-74: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component) affects the daily attendance report functionality of the Employee Task Management System. The vulnerable endpoint /daily-attendance-report.php accepts user-supplied input through the Date GET parameter without proper sanitization or parameterization before incorporating it into SQL queries.

The vulnerability enables attackers with high privileges to remotely inject malicious SQL statements that are executed against the backend database. When exploited, an attacker can potentially read, modify, or delete database contents, extract sensitive employee information including attendance records, personal data, and potentially credentials stored in the system.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is insufficient input validation and improper handling of user-supplied data in the GET Parameter Handler component. The Date parameter value is directly concatenated into SQL queries without using prepared statements or parameterized queries, allowing SQL syntax to be injected and executed by the database engine.

Attack Vector

The attack is network-based, requiring the attacker to send crafted HTTP GET requests to the vulnerable /daily-attendance-report.php endpoint. The attacker manipulates the Date parameter to include SQL injection payloads. While high privileges are required to access the vulnerable functionality, no user interaction is needed to execute the attack.

The exploit leverages classic SQL injection techniques where special SQL characters and commands are inserted into the Date parameter. This allows the attacker to break out of the intended query structure and execute arbitrary SQL commands. Technical details and proof-of-concept information can be found in the GitHub PoC Repository.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-3751

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual or malformed requests to /daily-attendance-report.php containing SQL syntax in the Date parameter
• Database error messages appearing in web application logs indicating SQL syntax errors
• Unexpected database queries attempting to access tables beyond attendance data
• Anomalous outbound traffic from the database server suggesting data exfiltration

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect SQL injection patterns in GET parameters targeting the attendance report endpoint
• Monitor web server access logs for requests containing common SQL injection signatures such as UNION SELECT, OR 1=1, single quotes, or comment sequences
• Enable database query logging and alert on queries with unusual syntax patterns originating from the web application
• Deploy intrusion detection systems configured with SQL injection detection rules

Monitoring Recommendations

• Configure real-time alerting for web application firewall blocks related to SQL injection attempts
• Establish baseline metrics for normal database query patterns and alert on deviations
• Monitor for authentication anomalies and privilege escalation attempts following potential exploitation
• Review database audit logs regularly for unauthorized data access patterns

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-3751

Immediate Actions Required

• Remove public access to the Employee Task Management System until patching is complete
• Implement input validation on all user-supplied parameters, particularly the Date parameter in /daily-attendance-report.php
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall with SQL injection protection rules
• Audit database access logs for signs of prior exploitation

Patch Information

As of the last update on 2026-03-09, no official vendor patch has been released for this vulnerability. Organizations should check the SourceCodester website for security updates. Additional vulnerability information is available through VulDB #349729.

Workarounds

• Implement server-side input validation to restrict the Date parameter to expected date format patterns only
• Use prepared statements or parameterized queries to prevent SQL injection in the affected code
• Apply principle of least privilege to database accounts used by the web application
• Consider deploying the application behind a reverse proxy with SQL injection filtering capabilities
• Restrict access to the vulnerable endpoint to trusted IP addresses only

# Configuration example for Apache mod_security SQL injection protection
# Add to Apache configuration or .htaccess file
SecRuleEngine On
SecRule ARGS:Date "@detectSQLi" \
    "id:1001,\
    phase:2,\
    deny,\
    status:403,\
    log,\
    msg:'SQL Injection Attempt Blocked on Date Parameter'"