CVE-2026-78244: Real Estate Management System SQL Injection

CVE-2026-78244 Overview

CVE-2026-78244 is a SQL injection vulnerability in itsourcecode Real Estate Management System 1.0. The flaw resides in search.php, where attacker-controlled input passed through the search, delivery_type, search_price, and property_type parameters is concatenated into SQL statements without proper sanitization. Remote attackers can exploit the issue over the network without authentication or user interaction. Public exploit details are available, which lowers the barrier to opportunistic abuse. The vulnerability is classified under [CWE-74] (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component).

Critical Impact
Unauthenticated remote attackers can inject arbitrary SQL through search.php, exposing property listings, user credentials, and other database contents.

Affected Products

itsourcecode Real Estate Management System 1.0
Deployments using the vulnerable search.php handler
Downstream forks or repackaged distributions of the same codebase

Discovery Timeline

2026-08-24 - CVE-2026-78244 published to NVD
2026-08-27 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-78244

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability affects search.php in itsourcecode Real Estate Management System 1.0. The script accepts the parameters search, delivery_type, search_price, and property_type from HTTP requests. These values are placed directly into SQL queries executed against the backend database. An attacker can supply crafted payloads that break out of the intended query context and append arbitrary SQL clauses.

Because the endpoint is publicly reachable and requires no authentication, exploitation can be automated with standard tools such as sqlmap. Successful injection permits reading arbitrary tables, extracting hashed credentials, and, depending on database privileges, writing files or modifying records. Public exploit information reduces reverse-engineering effort for attackers.

Root Cause

The root cause is unsanitized concatenation of user-controlled request parameters into SQL statements. The application does not use parameterized queries or prepared statements. Input validation and output encoding routines are absent for the affected parameters, aligning with the [CWE-74] injection weakness pattern.

Attack Vector

Exploitation occurs remotely over HTTP. An attacker issues a request to search.php and manipulates one or more of search, delivery_type, search_price, or property_type with SQL metacharacters. No credentials, session state, or user interaction is required. The vulnerability affects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the backing database.

Exploit specifics are documented in the referenced GitHub Issue #5 and the VulDB entry for CVE-2026-78244. No sanitized proof-of-concept code is reproduced here.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-78244

Indicators of Compromise

HTTP requests to search.php containing SQL metacharacters such as single quotes, UNION SELECT, SLEEP(, or -- in the search, delivery_type, search_price, or property_type parameters.
Web server access logs showing repeated search.php requests from a single source with varying parameter payloads consistent with automated tooling like sqlmap.
Database error messages or unusually long query execution times correlated with requests to search.php.

Detection Strategies

Deploy web application firewall rules that flag SQL syntax tokens submitted to the affected parameters.
Enable database query logging and alert on queries originating from the application user that reference information_schema, mysql.user, or stacked statements.
Compare request patterns against a baseline of legitimate search traffic to surface anomalies in parameter length, entropy, or character distribution.

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward web, application, and database logs to a centralized analytics platform and retain them for retrospective hunting.
Alert on outbound data volumes from the database host that exceed normal search-response sizes.
Track failed and successful authentication attempts against the application immediately after suspicious search.php traffic to detect credential theft follow-on activity.

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-78244

Immediate Actions Required

Restrict public access to search.php using network ACLs or authentication gates until code fixes are applied.
Deploy WAF signatures that block SQL injection payloads targeting the four affected parameters.
Rotate database credentials and audit database accounts for unauthorized changes if the application has been internet-exposed.

Patch Information

No vendor patch is referenced in the NVD entry for CVE-2026-78244 at the time of publication. Operators should monitor the itsourcecode project site and the VulDB vulnerability record #394594 for updated fixes. Until an official patch is released, apply the compensating controls described below and, where possible, modify search.php to use parameterized queries via PDO or mysqli prepared statements.

Workarounds

Rewrite the affected queries in search.php to use prepared statements with bound parameters instead of string concatenation.
Add server-side input validation that constrains search_price to numeric values and delivery_type and property_type to enumerated allow-lists.
Apply least-privilege configuration to the database account used by the application so it cannot read system tables or write files.
Take the affected instance offline if it is not required for production operations.

bash

# Example ModSecurity rule to block SQL metacharacters on the vulnerable endpoint
SecRule REQUEST_URI "@endsWith /search.php" \
    "chain,phase:2,deny,status:403,id:1078244,\
    msg:'CVE-2026-78244 SQLi attempt on search.php'"
    SecRule ARGS:search|ARGS:delivery_type|ARGS:search_price|ARGS:property_type \
        "@rx (?i)(union(\s|/\*.*\*/)+select|sleep\s*\(|benchmark\s*\(|--|;|/\*)"