CVE-2018-17840
📋 TL;DR
This CVE describes a critical SQL injection vulnerability in Scriptzee Education Website 1.0 that allows attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands via the college_list.html page parameters. Attackers can potentially access, modify, or delete database content. All users running the vulnerable version of this education website software are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- Scriptzee Education Website
📦 What is this software?
Education Website by Education Website Project
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete database compromise including data theft, data destruction, authentication bypass, and potential remote code execution through database functions.
Likely Case
Unauthorized access to sensitive student/education data, database manipulation, and potential privilege escalation.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper input validation and parameterized queries preventing SQL injection.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploit code is publicly available on Exploit-DB (ID: 45510), making this easily exploitable by attackers with basic SQL injection knowledge.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Unknown
Vendor Advisory: Not available
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
No official patch available. Consider migrating to alternative education website software or implementing custom fixes with parameterized queries.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement Input Validation
allAdd server-side input validation to reject malicious SQL characters in subject, city, and country parameters
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
allDeploy a WAF with SQL injection protection rules to block malicious requests
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Isolate the vulnerable system behind a reverse proxy with strict input filtering
- Implement network segmentation to limit database access from the web server
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Test the college_list.html page with SQL injection payloads in subject, city, or country parameters (e.g., ' OR '1'='1)Check Version:
Check website documentation or configuration files for version informationVerify Fix Applied:
Verify that SQL injection payloads no longer execute and return proper error handling📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual SQL error messages in web server logs
- Multiple requests with SQL keywords in parameters
- Requests to college_list.html with suspicious parameter values
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing SQL injection patterns in URL parameters
- Unusual database connection patterns from web server
SIEM Query:
source="web_server" AND (url="*college_list.html*" AND (param="*OR*" OR param="*UNION*" OR param="*SELECT*" OR param="*--*"))