Executive brief
GeniXCMS, a content management system used to build and manage websites, contains a critical security flaw in its author control component. An attacker can use this vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to the website's database, potentially leading to the theft of sensitive user data, modification of site content, or a complete takeover of the administrative account. This issue can be exploited remotely without requiring any login credentials.
Technical details
A SQL injection vulnerability exists in GeniXCMS versions up to and including 0.0.8 within the 'author.control.php' file. The vulnerability is caused by improper neutralization of special elements used in an SQL command, specifically affecting the 'type' parameter. A remote, unauthenticated attacker can exploit this by sending a specially crafted network request to execute arbitrary SQL commands against the backend database. Successful exploitation could result in full data exfiltration, modification of database records, or administrative bypass. A patch was reportedly addressed in the project's issue tracker.
Affected products
- GeniXCMS GeniXCMS through 0.0.8
Timeline
- 2017-01-17: disclosed
- 2017-01-17: advisory