CVE-2019-25698

Executive Summary

CVE-2019-25698 is a critical SQL injection vulnerability in the Kados R10 GreenBee application. The flaw exists in the id_to_delete parameter, allowing unauthenticated remote attackers to inject arbitrary SQL commands. This can lead to full database compromise, including extraction of sensitive data, modification of records, and potential lateral movement within the network. No official patch has been released, and no public proof-of-concept (PoC) code is available at this time. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-89 (SQL Injection) and is mapped to MITRE ATT&CK tactic T1190 (Exploit Public-Facing Application).

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
• Base Score: 9.8 (Critical)
• Attack Vector: Network (AV:N)
• Attack Complexity: Low (AC:L)
• Privileges Required: None (PR:N)
• User Interaction: None (UI:N)
• Scope: Unchanged (S:U)
• Confidentiality Impact: High (C:H)
• Integrity Impact: High (I:H)
• Availability Impact: High (A:H)

Threat Level: Critical. The vulnerability is remotely exploitable without authentication, and successful exploitation can result in complete database compromise.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The Kados R10 GreenBee application fails to sanitize user input passed to the id_to_delete parameter. This parameter is likely used in a DELETE SQL query without proper parameterization or escaping. An attacker can craft a malicious HTTP request containing SQL injection payloads in the id_to_delete field. For example:

POST /delete_endpoint HTTP/1.1
Host: target
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

id_to_delete=1' OR '1'='1

This payload would cause the application to delete all records in the table, or if used with UNION-based injection, extract data from other tables. The lack of input validation and prepared statements makes this vulnerability trivial to exploit.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Vulnerable Code (PHP example):

$id = $_POST['id_to_delete'];
$query = "DELETE FROM items WHERE id = $id";
mysqli_query($conn, $query);

Patched Code (using prepared statements):

$id = $_POST['id_to_delete'];
$stmt = $conn->prepare("DELETE FROM items WHERE id = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("i", $id);
$stmt->execute();

No official patch is available from the vendor. The above patched code is a recommended mitigation.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team

Lab Setup:

1. Deploy a vulnerable instance of Kados R10 GreenBee (e.g., using a Docker container or a local VM).
2. Identify the endpoint that accepts the id_to_delete parameter (e.g., /delete.php).
3. Use a tool like sqlmap or manual injection to exploit.

Exploitation Steps:

1. Intercept a request with id_to_delete parameter.
2. Inject a UNION-based payload to extract data:

   id_to_delete=1 UNION SELECT username, password FROM users--
   

3. Use sqlmap for automated exploitation:

   sqlmap -u "http://target/delete.php" --data="id_to_delete=1" --batch --dump
   

No public exploit code is available. The above is a generic SQL injection exploitation approach.

Blue Team

Detection:

• Monitor for SQL injection patterns in HTTP requests (e.g., ' OR, UNION SELECT, --).
• Use WAF rules to block suspicious id_to_delete values.
• Enable database query logging to detect anomalous DELETE operations.

Hunting:

• Search for requests with id_to_delete containing SQL keywords.
• Correlate with database error logs for SQL syntax errors.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network IOCs:
  • HTTP requests with id_to_delete parameter containing SQL keywords (e.g., ', OR, UNION, SELECT, --).
  • Unusual DELETE operations on database tables.
• Host IOCs:
  • Database logs showing unexpected queries.
  • Web server logs with 500 errors from SQL injection attempts.
• File IOCs:
  • Temporary files created by exploitation tools (e.g., sqlmap output files).

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2019_25698_SQLi {
    meta:
        description = "Detects SQL injection attempts targeting Kados R10 GreenBee id_to_delete parameter"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "CVE-2019-25698"
    strings:
        $s1 = "id_to_delete="
        $s2 = "' OR"
        $s3 = "UNION SELECT"
        $s4 = "1=1"
        $s5 = "--"
    condition:
        all of ($s*) or 2 of ($s*)
}

Sigma Rule

title: SQL Injection Attempt on Kados R10 GreenBee
id: 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc
status: experimental
description: Detects SQL injection attempts via id_to_delete parameter
author: Valters IT
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        c-uri|contains: "id_to_delete="
        c-uri|contains|any:
            - "' OR"
            - "UNION SELECT"
            - "1=1"
            - "--"
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate use of special characters in IDs (rare)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2019-25698 SQL Injection Attempt"; flow:to_server,established; content:"id_to_delete="; http_client_body; pcre:"/(\x27 OR|UNION SELECT|1=1|--)/i"; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

• Immediate: Apply input validation and parameterized queries to the id_to_delete parameter.
• Network: Deploy a WAF with rules to block SQL injection patterns.
• Monitoring: Enable detailed logging for database queries and web requests.
• Vendor: Contact Kados for an official patch; if unavailable, consider replacing the application.
• Long-term: Conduct a security audit of the entire application for similar vulnerabilities.

Valters IT
Securing Digital Frontiers

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