A dangerous security flaw, tracked as CVE-2024-12231, was recently discovered in CodeZips Project Management System 1.. This vulnerability allows hackers to attack the system remotely through a vulnerability in the main /index.php file of the application. The attack leverages the email parameter to inject malicious SQL queries, potentially giving attackers complete control over the application’s database.

This post explains how the vulnerability works, shows you what the exploit looks like, and provides steps to protect your system. All information here is exclusive, detailed, and broken down in plain American English for easy understanding.

Understanding the Vulnerability

CVE-2024-12231 is classified as a critical SQL Injection vulnerability. Here’s what’s happening:

Affected Software: CodeZips Project Management System 1.

- Vulnerable File: /index.php (exact location inside the code not publicly named, likely in the login or password reset components)

Impact: Attackers can run their own SQL commands on your database

What does this mean? Basically, if a hacker sends a specially crafted email address to the affected part of the application, they can fool the system into running dangerous SQL statements. This could let them steal user data, change records, or even completely take over the database.

Here’s a simplified explanation

1. The application expects users to enter their email, for example, when logging in or resetting a password.

The backend code takes the value of the email field from the user’s request.

3. The backend inserts this email directly into a SQL query, without checking or cleaning the input.
4. Attackers can inject their own SQL commands into the email field, causing the system to run these commands on the database.

This problem usually looks like this in code

// Example vulnerable PHP code (index.php)
$email = $_POST['email'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = '$email'";
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $query);
// No input sanitization or prepared statements!

What’s wrong: Any input provided in $_POST['email'] is placed directly into the query. If a hacker sends something like test@example.com' OR '1'='1, the SQL query will look like this:

SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = 'test@example.com' OR '1'='1'

This always evaluates to true, so the system could return all user records (or worse, allow a login as any user).

Live Exploit Example

Here’s a simple demonstration using curl, which can be used from any command line. We’ll try to log in or trigger a password reset using SQL Injection.

Example Exploit

curl -X POST "http://target-site.com/index.php"; \
     -d "email=' OR 1=1 -- -&password=whatever"

- NVD - CVE-2024-12231
- Exploit Database #52432: Codezips Project Management System v1. - SQL Injection
- Security Advisory at Packet Storm

Stop using version 1. immediately.

Upgrade if any patch or newer version is available. If not, disable the application publicly until a fix comes out.

`php

// Secure example

Final Thoughts

CVE-2024-12231 is a critical and easily exploited flaw that can compromise everything in your database. If you use CodeZips Project Management System 1., take action today to patch or mitigate this vulnerability. SQL Injection is one of the oldest hacking tricks, but it still shows up in many new applications, so always ensure input validation and secure coding!

References

- NVD CVE-2024-12231
- Exploit-DB #52432
- Packet Storm Security - CVE-2024-12231

Timeline

Published on: 12/05/2024 16:15:24 UTC