CVE-2024-45058
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability allows authenticated users with minimal viewing privileges in i-Educar school management software to escalate their privileges to Administrator level. Attackers can achieve this by sending a specially crafted POST request to modify user permissions. All i-Educar installations prior to version 2.9 are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- i-Educar
📦 What is this software?
I Educar by Portabilis
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete system compromise where an attacker gains full administrative control, can modify all user accounts, access sensitive student data, alter grades, and potentially disrupt school operations.
Likely Case
Privilege escalation leading to unauthorized access to sensitive student and staff information, grade manipulation, and system configuration changes.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if proper network segmentation and monitoring are in place, but still represents a significant authentication bypass vulnerability.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated access but minimal privileges. The vulnerability is well-documented with specific endpoint and parameter details available.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 2.9 branch and later
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/portabilis/i-educar/security/advisories/GHSA-53vj-fq8x-2mvg
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Update to i-Educar version 2.9 or later. 2. Apply commit c25910cdf11ab50e50162a49dd44bef544422b6e if manually patching. 3. Verify the patch by checking that educar_usuario_cad.php now validates user permissions before allowing privilege changes.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Access Control Restriction
allTemporarily restrict access to the vulnerable endpoint until patching can be completed.
# Example for Apache: RewriteRule ^intranet/educar_usuario_cad\.php$ - [F]
# Example for Nginx: location ~ ^/intranet/educar_usuario_cad\.php$ { return 403; }
Web Application Firewall Rule
allBlock POST requests to the vulnerable endpoint containing the nivel_usuario_ parameter.
# ModSecurity rule: SecRule REQUEST_URI "@rx ^/intranet/educar_usuario_cad\.php$" "id:1001,phase:2,deny,status:403,msg:'Blocking CVE-2024-45058 exploit attempt'"
# Add condition: "chain,t:lowercase,t:urlDecodeUni,ctl:ruleRemoveById=1001" for GET requests
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict network segmentation to isolate i-Educar instances from other critical systems
- Enhance monitoring and alerting for privilege escalation attempts and unusual administrative activity
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check if your i-Educar version is older than 2.9. Review the educar_usuario_cad.php file for missing permission validation before user privilege modifications.Check Version:
# Check i-Educar version in the application interface or configuration filesVerify Fix Applied:
Verify that the patch commit c25910cdf11ab50e50162a49dd44bef544422b6e is applied. Test that low-privilege users cannot modify their user type through POST requests to the endpoint.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- POST requests to /intranet/educar_usuario_cad.php with nivel_usuario_ parameter modifications
- Sudden privilege changes for users with previously low permissions
- Multiple failed privilege escalation attempts
Network Indicators:
- Unusual POST request patterns to the vulnerable endpoint from low-privilege accounts
- Traffic spikes to administrative interfaces from non-admin users
SIEM Query:
source="web_server" AND (url="/intranet/educar_usuario_cad.php" AND method="POST" AND params CONTAINS "nivel_usuario_")