CVE-2026-94041: Restaurant Management System SQL Injection

CVE-2026-94041 Overview

CVE-2026-94041 is a SQL injection vulnerability in the AdithyaYelloju Restaurant-Management-System, affecting all builds up to commit 7f0e7e84255e8fcfd488e83f8f91451bbbff6b9c. The flaw resides in admin/add_menu.php, where the item, price, image, and type parameters are passed into database queries without proper sanitization. Remote attackers with low-level authenticated access can manipulate these parameters to inject arbitrary SQL. The exploit has been publicly disclosed. Because the project uses a rolling release model, no fixed version is currently designated, and the maintainer has not yet responded to the issue report.

Critical Impact
Authenticated remote attackers can inject SQL through the menu creation endpoint, potentially exposing or modifying restaurant application data stored in the backend database.

Affected Products

AdithyaYelloju Restaurant-Management-System (rolling release)
All commits up to and including 7f0e7e84255e8fcfd488e83f8f91451bbbff6b9c
Component: admin/add_menu.php

Discovery Timeline

2026-09-20 - CVE-2026-94041 published to NVD
2026-09-21 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-94041

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a classic SQL injection classified under CWE-74: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component. The admin/add_menu.php script accepts four user-controlled parameters — item, price, image, and type — and incorporates them into a SQL statement without parameterization or input validation. An authenticated administrative user, or an attacker who has otherwise obtained low-privilege access to the admin interface, can supply crafted values that break out of the intended SQL context.

Because the injection point is in the menu-creation workflow, an attacker can exfiltrate table contents, alter menu records, or pivot to broader database operations depending on the privileges of the database account used by the application. The affected project uses a continuous delivery model, so no versioned patch exists at the time of disclosure.

Root Cause

The root cause is direct concatenation of unsanitized HTTP request parameters into a SQL INSERT statement within admin/add_menu.php. Prepared statements and parameterized queries are not used, and no server-side type validation is performed on numeric fields such as price.

Attack Vector

Exploitation occurs remotely over the network against the admin endpoint. The attacker submits an HTTP request to admin/add_menu.php with SQL metacharacters embedded in the item, price, image, or type fields. Authentication with low privileges (PR:L) is required, and no user interaction is needed. See the VulDB entry for CVE-2026-94041 and the associated GitHub issue tracker entry for the disclosed technical detail.

// No verified proof-of-concept code has been published in a form suitable for reproduction here.
// Refer to the VulDB advisory and GitHub issue for disclosed technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-94041

Indicators of Compromise

HTTP POST requests to admin/add_menu.php containing SQL metacharacters such as ', --, UNION, or SLEEP( in the item, price, image, or type parameters.
Unexpected new or modified rows in the menu database table, particularly with non-standard values in the price column.
Web server error log entries referencing SQL syntax errors originating from add_menu.php.

Detection Strategies

Deploy a web application firewall (WAF) ruleset that inspects POST bodies to admin endpoints for common SQL injection payloads.
Enable database query logging and alert on statements originating from the application user that contain UNION SELECT, stacked queries, or time-based functions.
Baseline normal administrative traffic to admin/add_menu.php and flag deviations in parameter length, character set, or request frequency.

Monitoring Recommendations

Correlate authentication events for admin accounts with subsequent requests to add_menu.php to identify credential misuse.
Monitor for outbound database connections or file writes triggered by the web application process outside expected patterns.
Retain HTTP access logs and database audit logs for at least 90 days to support post-incident analysis.

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-94041

Immediate Actions Required

Restrict network access to the admin/ directory using IP allowlists or a VPN until a code fix is available.
Rotate credentials for all administrative accounts on the Restaurant-Management-System deployment.
Review the menu table and application audit logs for signs of injection activity or unauthorized modification.

Patch Information

No official patch is available. The project is distributed as a rolling release, and as noted in the GitHub issue tracker entry, the maintainer has not responded to the disclosure. Organizations using this codebase should apply a local fix by refactoring admin/add_menu.php to use parameterized queries (for example, PDO prepared statements with bound parameters) and by enforcing server-side type validation on the price field.

Workarounds

Place the application behind a WAF configured with SQL injection signatures targeting the vulnerable parameters.
Grant the application's database user only the minimum privileges required (no DROP, ALTER, or FILE permissions).
Disable or remove the admin/add_menu.php endpoint if menu management is not actively required.

bash

# Example: apply least-privilege to the application's MySQL account
REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES ON restaurant_db.* FROM 'app_user'@'%';
GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON restaurant_db.* TO 'app_user'@'%';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;