CVE Alert: CVE-2025-11475 – projectworlds – Advanced Library Management System

Risk verdict

High risk: publicly disclosed, network-accessible SQL injection with unauthenticated access via a vulnerable endpoint; exploitation could be automated and opportunistic.

Why this matters

Patron data and system integrity are exposed to manipulation or leakage, with potential impact on library records, fines, and authentication flows. An attacker could enable data exfiltration or data integrity issues without user interaction, enabling broader reconnaissance or pivoting on the backend.

Most likely attack path

An attacker targets the vulnerable /view_member.php endpoint, supplying crafted user_id values to trigger SQL injection. No credentials or user interaction are required, and a remote actor could enumerate data or corrupt records; if the database is misconfigured, there is potential for escalation or secondary access.

Who is most exposed

Publicly facing, web-based library management systems—common in educational and smaller institutions—running on standard LAMP stacks are particularly at risk when deployed with default configurations and exposed admin/public endpoints.

Detection ideas

• Anomalous requests to view_member.php with varied user_id payloads.
• SQL error messages or stack traces appearing in app or DB logs.
• Sudden spikes in 500/403 responses tied to that endpoint.
• Patterns indicative of data enumeration or extraction attempts.
• WAF alerts for SQL injection payloads targeting the endpoint.

Mitigation and prioritisation

• Apply the vendor patch or upgrade to the fixed version; confirm patch applicability in staging first.
• Implement parameterised queries and input validation on user_id; enforce least privilege for DB login.
• Introduce input sanitisation, prepared statements, and endpoint-level access controls; disable direct SQL execution from that page.
• Deploy web application firewall rules targeting SQLi patterns; monitor and log all access to the endpoint.
• Schedule a rapid-change window with back-ups and rollback plan; communicate change-management steps to stakeholders.