CVE-2026-90516: School Registration Fee System SQL Injection

CVE-2026-90516 Overview

CVE-2026-90516 is a SQL injection vulnerability in SourceCodester School Registration and Fee System 1.0. The flaw resides in the /bilal/normal/pay_report.php script, where the period parameter is passed to a database query without proper sanitization. Attackers can exploit this weakness remotely without authentication or user interaction. Public exploit details have been disclosed, increasing the likelihood of opportunistic exploitation against exposed installations. 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 manipulate the period argument to inject arbitrary SQL statements, potentially exposing student records, financial data, or authentication material stored in the application database.

Affected Products

• SourceCodester School Registration and Fee System 1.0
• pay_report.php component under the /bilal/normal/ path
• Deployments exposing the affected PHP application to untrusted networks

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-09-13 - CVE-2026-90516 published to the National Vulnerability Database
• 2026-09-14 - Last updated in the NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-90516

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability affects the payment reporting workflow of the School Registration and Fee System. The pay_report.php endpoint accepts a period request parameter and passes it directly into a backend SQL query. Because the input is neither parameterized nor escaped, attackers can break out of the intended query context and append arbitrary SQL syntax. Exploitation requires only network reachability to the application, with no credentials or user interaction needed. Public disclosure of the exploit technique through the referenced GitHub issue lowers the barrier for adversaries to weaponize the flaw against exposed deployments.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper neutralization of user-controlled input concatenated into a SQL statement. The period parameter is trusted as-is by the query builder inside pay_report.php, which reflects a broader failure to enforce prepared statements or input validation across the application. This class of weakness is tracked as [CWE-74].

Attack Vector

An attacker sends a crafted HTTP request to /bilal/normal/pay_report.php containing malicious SQL syntax within the period parameter. Because the endpoint is reachable over the network and requires no authentication, exploitation can be automated at scale. Successful injection allows an attacker to read arbitrary tables, modify records, or enumerate database schema depending on the underlying database privileges. See the VulDB entry for additional technical context.

No verified proof-of-concept code is included here. Refer to the VulDB vulnerability details for exploitation specifics.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-90516

Indicators of Compromise

• HTTP requests to /bilal/normal/pay_report.php containing SQL metacharacters such as single quotes, UNION, SELECT, SLEEP(, or comment sequences (--, #) in the period parameter
• Web server access logs showing repeated requests to pay_report.php from a single source with varied period payloads
• Unexpected database errors or long response times originating from the payment reporting endpoint

Detection Strategies

• Deploy web application firewall (WAF) rules that inspect the period query string parameter for SQL injection signatures
• Enable database query logging and alert on syntactically unusual statements originating from the application service account
• Correlate web access logs with database audit logs to identify request-to-query pairs that deviate from normal reporting behavior

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor outbound data volume from the database host for anomalies consistent with bulk data extraction
• Track authentication failures and privilege escalation attempts that follow suspicious activity on pay_report.php
• Alert on any modification to PHP source files within the /bilal/normal/ directory to detect follow-on webshell placement

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-90516

Immediate Actions Required

• Restrict network access to the School Registration and Fee System until a fix is applied, using firewall rules or VPN-only access
• Disable or remove the pay_report.php endpoint if the payment reporting feature is not required
• Review web server and database logs for prior exploitation attempts against the period parameter
• Rotate any credentials or session tokens stored in the affected database if compromise is suspected

Patch Information

At the time of publication, no official vendor patch has been referenced for CVE-2026-90516. Monitor the SourceCodester resource hub and the VulDB CVE entry for updates. Organizations maintaining forks of the application should refactor pay_report.php to use prepared statements with bound parameters for the period value.

Workarounds

• Place the application behind a WAF with signatures tuned to block SQL injection patterns targeting the period parameter
• Implement server-side input validation that restricts period to an allow-listed set of expected values or a strict date format
• Run the database service account with least-privilege permissions to limit the impact of successful injection
• Enable prepared statements globally by refactoring PHP database access to use PDO or mysqli parameterized queries

# Example nginx location block to restrict access to the vulnerable endpoint
location = /bilal/normal/pay_report.php {
    allow 10.0.0.0/8;
    deny all;
}