As the demand for online education management grows, so does the necessity for secure web applications. However, even the most popular school management systems aren't immune to vulnerability. One such example is the Campcodes Complete Web-Based School Management System, a widely-used platform that has recently been found to have a critical SQL injection vulnerability.

A security researcher discovered that an attacker can exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary SQL commands via the month parameter in /view/event1.php of the Campcodes Complete Web-Based School Management System 1.. This vulnerability has been designated CVE-2024-34936, and its details, links to original references, and exploit information can be found below.

Exploit Details

The vulnerability resides in the /view/event1.php file, where the month parameter is vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. An attacker can send a specially crafted HTTP request, including an arbitrary SQL command, to execute it on the system. This could lead to unauthorized access, data manipulation, or even complete takeover of the affected system.

Here's a basic example of a vulnerable code snippet

$month = $_GET['month'];
$sql = "SELECT * FROM events WHERE month='" . $month . "'";
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);

In this example, an attacker could use a simple SQL Injection payload as the month parameter as shown below:

/view/event1.php?month=1' or '1'='1

This would execute the SQL command and likely return all records from the 'events' table, regardless of their actual month value.

Original References

The vulnerability was first reported on the Exploit Database website, where you can find detailed information, proof of concept, and exploit code. Here are the relevant links:

1. Exploit Database entry: https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/49743
2. Original researcher's report: https://github.com/CampCodes/campcodes.github.io/issues/1
3. Campcodes website: https://www.campcodes.com

Mitigation Steps

To prevent exploitation of this vulnerability, it is recommended to implement proper input validation and use prepared statements in the SQL queries for all user-supplied data. For instance, applying the following code modification using mysqli prepared statement may mitigate the issue:

$month = $_GET['month'];
$sql = "SELECT * FROM events WHERE month= ?";
$stmt = mysqli_prepare($conn, $sql);
mysqli_stmt_bind_param($stmt, "s", $month);
mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);
$result = mysqli_stmt_get_result($stmt);

Updating your school's management system to the latest version or contacting the Campcodes support for an official patch is also advised.

Conclusion

It's crucial that the education sector takes cybersecurity seriously. With the discovery of the CVE-2024-34936 vulnerability in the Campcodes Complete Web-Based School Management System 1., we can see that even widely-used platforms can be susceptible to major security flaws. By staying informed on the latest vulnerabilities, applying code fixes, and keeping systems up-to-date, administrators can significantly improve the security of online education management systems.

Timeline

Published on: 05/23/2024 17:15:30 UTC
Last modified on: 08/07/2024 21:35:05 UTC