CVE-2026-90842: PHPGurukul Blood Donor System Disclosure

CVE-2026-90842 Overview

CVE-2026-90842 is a cleartext storage weakness in PHPGurukul Blood Donor Management System 1.0. The flaw resides in the application/models/admin/Login_Model.php file. Manipulation of the password, email, currentpassword, dbcurrentpwd, or newpassword arguments causes sensitive credential data to be written to a file or on disk in cleartext [CWE-312].

The vulnerability is remotely reachable across a network. Exploitation requires high attack complexity and is considered difficult to reproduce reliably. A public exploit has been made available, increasing the likelihood that opportunistic actors may attempt to weaponize it against exposed installations.

Critical Impact
Administrator and user credentials handled by the login model can be stored in cleartext, enabling credential theft if an attacker gains file or disk access.

Affected Products

PHPGurukul Blood Donor Management System 1.0
Component: application/models/admin/Login_Model.php
Impacted parameters: password, email, currentpassword, dbcurrentpwd, newpassword

Discovery Timeline

2026-09-15 - CVE-2026-90842 published to NVD
2026-09-15 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-90842

Vulnerability Analysis

The issue is a Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information weakness classified under [CWE-312]. The Login_Model.php component processes authentication and password-change parameters but writes their contents to disk without encryption or hashing. Any user or process able to read the resulting file recovers plaintext credentials.

The scope of the exposure covers primary authentication (email, password), current-password verification (currentpassword, dbcurrentpwd), and password updates (newpassword). Because both administrator and end-user workflows share this model, both credential classes may be exposed.

Credential exposure of this type often enables lateral movement. Reused passwords across administrative panels, email accounts, or database services expand the blast radius well beyond the vulnerable application itself.

Root Cause

The root cause is the absence of proper cryptographic handling for sensitive input inside Login_Model.php. Instead of hashing passwords with a modern algorithm or restricting persistence to memory, the code path retains credential material on disk in a human-readable form.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based but requires high complexity, meaning the attacker must satisfy specific preconditions to reach the cleartext artifact. Typical paths include leveraging a secondary flaw such as local file inclusion, misconfigured web server directory listing, or backup file exposure to retrieve the stored credentials. See the GitHub Issue on CVEs and VulDB CVE Report #CVE-2026-90842 for public technical detail.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-90842

Indicators of Compromise

Presence of files under the application directory containing plaintext values for password, currentpassword, dbcurrentpwd, or newpassword fields.
Web server access log entries showing repeated POST requests to admin login or password-change endpoints from unexpected sources.
Unauthorized administrator logins following anomalous file-read requests targeting the application/models/admin/ path.

Detection Strategies

Perform static review of Login_Model.php and related files to confirm whether credential parameters are written to disk without hashing.
Scan the web root and writable directories for files whose contents match credential field names or plaintext password patterns.
Correlate authentication events with file-system write activity in the application directory to surface abnormal credential persistence.

Monitoring Recommendations

Alert on any read access to non-standard files inside the PHPGurukul application directory, especially from web-facing processes.
Monitor for authentication anomalies such as impossible-travel logins or credential stuffing patterns against the admin panel.
Track integrity of application/models/admin/Login_Model.php and flag unauthorized changes.

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-90842

Immediate Actions Required

Restrict network exposure of the Blood Donor Management System admin interface to trusted IP ranges or a VPN.
Rotate all administrator and user credentials, particularly any that may have been reused across other systems.
Audit the application directory for any files containing cleartext credential material and securely delete them.

Patch Information

No vendor patch is referenced in the available advisory data. Consult the PHP Gurukul Resource for vendor updates and monitor the VulDB Vulnerability #403394 entry for revised remediation guidance.

Workarounds

Modify Login_Model.php to hash passwords using password_hash() with PASSWORD_BCRYPT or PASSWORD_ARGON2ID and remove any code paths that persist plaintext credentials to disk.
Set restrictive file-system permissions on the application directory so that only the web server user can read application files, and block direct HTTP access to model files via web server configuration.
Deploy a web application firewall rule set to block anomalous requests targeting application/models/admin/ paths.

bash

# Configuration example: block direct access to model files in Apache
<DirectoryMatch "^/.*/application/models/">
    Require all denied
</DirectoryMatch>