Executive brief
SourceCodester Online Faculty Clearance System is a web application used for managing faculty clearance and profile information. An authenticated attacker can upload malicious files with executable extensions (such as .php) to the profile picture upload feature, leading to remote code execution on the server and potential compromise of the entire application and its data.
Technical details
This is an unrestricted file upload vulnerability in the profile picture upload handler (production/edit_picture.php). The vulnerable code directly uses the client-supplied filename without any validation of file extension, MIME type, or content, then writes it to a web-accessible directory using move_uploaded_file(). An authenticated attacker can upload a PHP payload with a .php filename extension, which is then executed by the web server when accessed via HTTP. Authentication is required as the upload endpoint is protected by the application's login mechanism. Exploitation leads to unauthenticated remote code execution with the privileges of the web server process.
Affected products
- SourceCodester Online Faculty Clearance System 1.0
Timeline
- 2026-08-16: disclosed
- 2026-09-15: advisory: Published on NVD