CVE-2023-3809: Critical Vulnerability Discovered in Hospital Management System 1. - SQL Injection via patient.php

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Summary

A critical vulnerability, designated as CVE-2023-3809, has been discovered in the Hospital Management System version 1.. This vulnerability is located within the patient.php file, and it allows SQL injection attacks through the manipulation of the 'address' argument. The attack can be executed remotely, putting confidential data at risk. As of now, the exploit has been publicly disclosed, with the vulnerability identifier VDB-235077 assigned to it.

Vulnerability Details

The affected component in the Hospital Management System 1. is the patient.php file, which is responsible for handling patient records and related operations. The SQL injection vulnerability arises due to improper user input validation for the address argument within the file. As a result, an attacker can inject malicious SQL commands through the address field, which would then be executed on the server-side.

The exploitation of this vulnerability could result in unauthorized access to sensitive data, modification or deletion of records, and the potential execution of arbitrary code on the server.

The following code snippet highlights the affected section within the patient.php file

<?php
...
// Get user input for the address field.
$address = $_POST['address'];

// Construct the SQL query for inserting the user's address.
$query = "INSERT INTO patients (address) VALUES ('$address')";

// Execute the SQL query.
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $query);
...
?>

In this code snippet, you can see that the user input for the $address variable is taken directly from the $_POST method without any proper validation or sanitization. This makes it vulnerable to SQL injection attacks.

Exploit Example

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting crafted input to the address field, such as:

'); DROP TABLE patients;--

This input would result in an SQL query that looks like this

INSERT INTO patients (address) VALUES (''); DROP TABLE patients;--')

This would cause all data in the patients table to be deleted as a result.

The original source of the vulnerability disclosure can be found at the following link

- CVE Details: CVE-2023-3809

Further information about the Hospital Management System and related security concerns can be accessed at these links:

- Hospital Management System 1.: Official Website
- SQL Injection: OWASP Guide

Recommendations

To protect your Hospital Management System 1. instance from this vulnerability, it is recommended that you implement proper input validation and sanitization methods for all user-provided data, especially those used in SQL queries. For instance, you could use the mysqli_real_escape_string() function to sanitize user input before using it in a query.

Additionally, ensure that you have up-to-date security measures in place, including network firewalls, access control mechanisms, and monitoring systems, to minimize the risk of exploitation.

Stay vigilant and always keep your software up to date with the latest security patches to ensure the continued protection of your critical data and systems.

Timeline

Published on: 07/21/2023 04:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 07/26/2023 21:19:00 UTC