CVE-2025-3038
📋 TL;DR
This critical SQL injection vulnerability in Payroll Management System 1.0 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands via the salary_rate parameter in /view_account.php. This can lead to unauthorized data access, modification, or deletion. Organizations using this specific payroll software are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- code-projects Payroll Management System
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete database compromise including theft of sensitive payroll data, financial records, and employee PII, potentially leading to data destruction or ransomware deployment.
Likely Case
Unauthorized access to payroll data, employee information theft, and potential privilege escalation within the application.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper input validation and database permissions, potentially only error messages or partial data exposure.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploit details are publicly available in GitHub repositories, making this easily exploitable by attackers with basic SQL injection knowledge.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Unknown
Vendor Advisory: https://code-projects.org/
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
No official patch available. Consider migrating to alternative payroll software or implementing workarounds.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Input Validation Filter
allAdd server-side validation to sanitize the salary_rate parameter before processing SQL queries.
Modify /view_account.php to include parameter validation: $salary_rate = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_GET['salary_rate']);
Web Application Firewall Rule
allBlock SQL injection patterns targeting the salary_rate parameter.
WAF rule: SecRule ARGS:salary_rate "@detectSQLi" "id:1001,phase:2,deny,status:403"
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Isolate the payroll system on a separate network segment with strict firewall rules limiting access to authorized users only.
- Implement database-level controls: use least privilege accounts, enable query logging, and regularly audit database access patterns.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Test the /view_account.php endpoint with SQL injection payloads in the salary_rate parameter (e.g., salary_rate=1' OR '1'='1). Monitor for database errors or unexpected responses.Check Version:
Check the software version in the application interface or configuration files, typically in about.php or config.php.Verify Fix Applied:
After implementing workarounds, retest with the same payloads to ensure proper error handling and no SQL execution.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual SQL queries in database logs
- Multiple failed login attempts or parameter manipulation in web server logs for /view_account.php
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests to /view_account.php containing SQL keywords (UNION, SELECT, etc.) in parameters
SIEM Query:
source="web_logs" AND url="/view_account.php" AND (param="salary_rate" AND value MATCHES "[';]|UNION|SELECT")