CVE Alert: CVE-2025-11584 – code-projects – Online Job Search Engine

Risk verdict

High risk: remote SQL injection on a publicly reachable searchendpoint, with exploit publicly disclosed and no authentication required.

Why this matters

The vulnerability allows attacker data exposure and possible manipulation of the database, risking confidential candidate and job data, integrity of listings, and potential downtime. With PoC/public awareness, opportunistic targeting is likely and impact scales with the database privileges.

Most likely attack path

An attacker sends crafted input in txtspecialization to /searchjob.php, triggering an SQL injection due to lack of input sanitisation. No user interaction or authentication is required (network access, low complexity). If the DB user has sufficient rights, data exfiltration or modification is feasible; even with limited privileges, sensitive data exposure is possible.

Who is most exposed

Public-facing PHP web applications running code-projects-style search interfaces are exposed via the internet, commonly on SME deployments using LAMP stacks or generic hosting. Such setups often run with web DB access reachable from external networks.

Detection ideas

• Logs show requests to searchjob.php with SQLi-like payloads (UNION SELECT, SELECT, OR 1=1, comments).
• Database errors or unusual long-running queries tied to txtspecialization inputs.
• spikes in 500s or elevated query latency corresponding to specific inputs.
• WAF/IDS alerts for SQL injection signatures against the endpoint.
• Unusual data access patterns or export-like data dumps from the DB.

Mitigation and prioritisation

• Apply vendor patch or upgrade to a fixed version; if unavailable, implement immediate input validation and parameterised queries (prepared statements) in searchjob.php.
• Refactor to use bound parameters; avoid dynamic SQL and concatenation.
• Enforce least-privilege DB credentials; disable unnecessary DB features; suppress verbose error messages.
• Deploy or tune a Web Application Firewall with SQLi rules; monitor for injection attempts.
• Change-management: test fixes in a staging environment; schedule rapid production rollout; implement continuous monitoring for signs of exploitation.