CVE-2025-22957

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-22957 is a critical unauthenticated SQL injection vulnerability in ZZCms versions up to and including 2023. The flaw resides in the front-end of the application, allowing remote attackers to inject arbitrary SQL queries without any authentication. Successful exploitation can lead to unauthorized database access, data exfiltration, and potential lateral movement within the network. The vulnerability has a CVSS base score of 7.5 (High) due to the network attack vector, low complexity, and high confidentiality impact. No official patch has been released, making this a zero-day threat for all unpatched instances.

Supply Chain & Package Security

ZZCms is a PHP-based content management system. The vulnerability affects the core application code, not a specific package manager (NPM, PyPI, Go, Ruby). However, organizations using ZZCms should treat this as a supply chain risk due to the lack of a vendor patch. Immediate mitigation involves disabling the vulnerable front-end components or applying virtual patches via WAF.

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) – Exploit does not affect other components.
• Confidentiality (C): High (H) – Full database read access.
• Integrity (I): None (N) – No data modification.
• Availability (A): None (N) – No denial of service.

Threat Level: High. The combination of unauthenticated access and low complexity makes this a prime target for automated scanning and exploitation.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The SQL injection vulnerability exists in the front-end of ZZCms, likely in a search or parameter handling function. The application fails to sanitize user-supplied input before constructing SQL queries. An attacker can inject malicious SQL payloads via HTTP GET or POST parameters.

Vulnerable Code Pattern (Hypothetical):

$id = $_GET['id'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM articles WHERE id = $id";
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $query);

Exploitation Mechanics:

1. The attacker sends a crafted request with a SQL injection payload in a parameter (e.g., id=1 UNION SELECT ...).
2. The application concatenates the input directly into the SQL query.
3. The database executes the malicious query, returning sensitive data to the attacker.

Impact:

• Full database dump (users, passwords, content).
• Potential for further attacks (e.g., stored XSS, privilege escalation) if the database contains application credentials.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Vulnerable Code (ZZCms <= 2023):

// No input sanitization
$id = $_GET['id'];
$sql = "SELECT * FROM articles WHERE id = $id";
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);

Patched Code (Hypothetical):

// Use prepared statements
$stmt = $conn->prepare("SELECT * FROM articles WHERE id = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("i", $id);
$id = $_GET['id'];
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt->get_result();

Key Difference: The patched version uses parameterized queries, preventing SQL injection by separating SQL logic from data.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Offensive)

Prerequisites:

• Target: ZZCms instance (version <= 2023)
• Tool: sqlmap or manual exploitation

Manual Exploitation:

1. Identify a vulnerable parameter (e.g., id, cat, search).
2. Test with a simple payload: ' OR '1'='1
3. If successful, extract data using UNION-based injection.

Example Payload:

http://target.com/article.php?id=1 UNION SELECT 1,2,3,group_concat(username,0x3a,password),5,6 FROM admin_users--

Automated Exploitation with sqlmap:

sqlmap -u "http://target.com/article.php?id=1" --batch --dbs

Lab Setup:

1. Deploy a vulnerable ZZCms instance using Docker or a local LAMP stack.
2. Use a tool like Burp Suite to intercept and modify requests.
3. Execute the above payloads to verify the vulnerability.

Blue Team (Defensive)

Detection:

• Monitor for SQL injection patterns in web logs (e.g., UNION, SELECT, OR 1=1).
• Use WAF rules to block suspicious SQL keywords.

Mitigation:

• Apply virtual patching via WAF (e.g., ModSecurity rule to block UNION SELECT).
• Disable vulnerable front-end features if possible.
• Implement input validation and parameterized queries in custom code.

Hunting:

• Search for anomalous database queries in database logs.
• Look for outbound connections from the web server to unknown IPs (data exfiltration).

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

Network IOCs:

• HTTP requests containing SQL keywords: UNION, SELECT, FROM, WHERE, OR, AND, --, #, /*.
• Repeated requests to the same endpoint with varying parameters.
• Unusually large response sizes (data exfiltration).

File IOCs:

• Web server logs showing SQL injection attempts.
• Database logs with unexpected queries.

System IOCs:

• Unauthorized database dumps (e.g., mysqldump execution).
• New user accounts or modified permissions in the database.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_22957_SQLi_ZZCms {
    meta:
        description = "Detects SQL injection attempts targeting ZZCms CVE-2025-22957"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-22957"
    strings:
        $sqli1 = /UNION\s+SELECT/i
        $sqli2 = /OR\s+['"]\d+['"]\s*=\s*['"]\d+['"]/i
        $sqli3 = /--\s*$/m
        $sqli4 = /\/\*.*\*\//s
        $sqli5 = /WAITFOR\s+DELAY/i
    condition:
        any of ($sqli*) and filesize < 10KB
}

Sigma Rule

title: SQL Injection Attempt Against ZZCms
id: 7a8b9c0d-1e2f-3a4b-5c6d-7e8f9a0b1c2d
status: experimental
description: Detects SQL injection patterns in HTTP requests targeting ZZCms
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: 'GET'
        cs-uri-query|contains:
            - 'UNION'
            - 'SELECT'
            - 'OR 1=1'
            - '--'
            - '/*'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate use of SQL keywords in search queries (rare)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2025-22957 SQL Injection Attempt"; flow:to_server,established; content:"UNION"; http_uri; nocase; content:"SELECT"; http_uri; nocase; distance:0; within:100; classtype:web-application-attack; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable vulnerable front-end features – If possible, disable the component that handles user input (e.g., search, article display).
2. Apply WAF rules – Block SQL injection patterns using ModSecurity or cloud WAF.
3. Monitor logs – Actively search for exploitation attempts.

Long-term Fix:

• Upgrade ZZCms – If a patched version becomes available, upgrade immediately.
• Code audit – Review all SQL queries in the application and replace with prepared statements.
• Input validation – Implement strict whitelisting for all user inputs.

Workaround:

• Use a reverse proxy to sanitize input before it reaches the application.
• Implement database user permissions to limit the impact of a successful injection (e.g., read-only user for front-end queries).

Valters IT
Securing Digital Frontiers