CVE-2025-12615
📋 TL;DR
PHPGurukul News Portal 1.0 contains a hard-coded cryptographic key in its settings.py file, allowing attackers to potentially decrypt sensitive data or forge authentication tokens. This affects all deployments of PHPGurukul News Portal 1.0 using the default configuration. Remote attackers can exploit this vulnerability to compromise system security.
💻 Affected Systems
- PHPGurukul News Portal
📦 What is this software?
News Portal by Phpgurukul
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers decrypt stored sensitive data, forge authentication tokens to gain administrative access, or compromise the entire application's security framework.
Likely Case
Attackers access encrypted configuration data or session information, potentially leading to data exposure or limited privilege escalation.
If Mitigated
With proper network segmentation and access controls, impact is limited to the specific application instance without lateral movement.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploit requires understanding of Django's cryptographic mechanisms but has been publicly disclosed.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Not available
Vendor Advisory: Not available
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Generate a new random SECRET_KEY using Django's get_random_secret_key() function. 2. Replace the hard-coded value in /onps/settings.py. 3. Restart the Django application. 4. Consider rotating any data encrypted with the old key.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Environment Variable Configuration
allMove SECRET_KEY to environment variable instead of hard-coded value
export SECRET_KEY='your-random-key-here'
Update settings.py to use os.environ.get('SECRET_KEY')
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Network segmentation to restrict access to the application
- Implement WAF rules to detect and block exploitation attempts
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Inspect /onps/settings.py file for hard-coded SECRET_KEY value that matches known vulnerable patternsCheck Version:
Check application version in admin panel or project configuration filesVerify Fix Applied:
Verify SECRET_KEY in settings.py is either environment-based or a newly generated random value📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual authentication patterns
- Multiple failed decryption attempts
Network Indicators:
- Suspicious requests to settings.py or configuration endpoints
SIEM Query:
source="web_logs" AND (uri="/onps/settings.py" OR uri LIKE "%settings%")🔗 References
- https://github.com/NishantKumar-CSE/News-Portal-Python-Django-Project/blob/main/Hard-coded%20Cryptographic%20Key.md
- https://phpgurukul.com/
- https://vuldb.com/?ctiid.330909
- https://vuldb.com/?id.330909
- https://vuldb.com/?submit.678625
- https://github.com/NishantKumar-CSE/News-Portal-Python-Django-Project/blob/main/Hard-coded%20Cryptographic%20Key.md
