CVE-2023-44481
📋 TL;DR
Leave Management System Project v1.0 contains an authenticated SQL injection vulnerability in the 'setearnleave' parameter of admin/setleaves.php. This allows authenticated attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands on the database. Organizations using this specific software version are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- Leave Management System Project
📦 What is this software?
Leave Management System by Projectworlds
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete database compromise including data theft, data manipulation, privilege escalation to database administrator, and potential remote code execution on the database server.
Likely Case
Unauthorized access to sensitive employee leave data, personal information exposure, and potential manipulation of leave records.
If Mitigated
Limited to authenticated user's permissions if proper input validation and parameterized queries are implemented.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated access. SQL injection is straightforward with common tools like sqlmap.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Unknown
Vendor Advisory: https://projectworlds.in/
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Check vendor website for updated version
2. If available, download and replace vulnerable files
3. Test functionality after replacement
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation Filter
allAdd server-side validation to filter/sanitize the 'setearnleave' parameter
// PHP example: filter_var($_POST['setearnleave'], FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT);
Web Application Firewall
allDeploy WAF with SQL injection rules to block malicious requests
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement network segmentation to isolate the application from sensitive databases
- Enable detailed logging and monitoring for SQL injection attempts
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Test the 'setearnleave' parameter with SQL injection payloads like: ' OR '1'='1Check Version:
Check application version in admin panel or readme filesVerify Fix Applied:
Test with same payloads and verify they are rejected or sanitized📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual SQL queries in database logs
- Multiple failed login attempts followed by parameter manipulation
Network Indicators:
- HTTP POST requests to admin/setleaves.php with SQL keywords in parameters
SIEM Query:
source="web_logs" AND uri="/admin/setleaves.php" AND (param="setearnleave" AND value MATCHES "(?i)(union|select|insert|update|delete|drop|or|and)")