Overview
A high-level vulnerability has been discovered in the ManageWiki extension for MediaWiki. This vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-32956, exposes systems to SQL injection attacks and could potentially lead to system compromise or data leakage. Considering the widespread use of MediaWiki for creating and managing knowledge bases, the vulnerability could have wide-ranging impacts on both private and public sector organizations. It is therefore essential for administrators and cybersecurity specialists to fully understand this threat and apply appropriate mitigation strategies.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-32956
Severity: High (CVSS: 8.0)
Attack Vector: Web-based
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Potential system compromise, data leakage
Affected Products
No phone number, email, or personal info required.
Product | Affected Versions
ManageWiki Extension for MediaWiki | Before commit f504ed8
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability resides in the functionality that allows users to rename a namespace in Special:ManageWiki/namespaces. By using a page prefix (the current namespace you are renaming) with an injection payload, an attacker can manipulate the SQL queries executed by the server. This manipulation can allow the attacker to modify, delete or extract data from the database, potentially leading to unauthorized access or data loss.
Conceptual Example Code
The following example demonstrates a conceptual SQL injection attack exploiting this vulnerability:
POST /Special:ManageWiki/namespaces HTTP/1.1
Host: vulnerable-wiki.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
namespace=Users&newnamespace=Admin'; DROP TABLE Users; --In this example, the attacker attempts to rename the “Users” namespace to “Admin’; DROP TABLE Users; –“. This input is designed to end the original SQL statement after “Admin” and then execute a new statement that drops the “Users” table, effectively deleting all data within it. The “–” at the end is a comment in SQL, making the server ignore the rest of the original query.
Please note that this is a simplified and theoretical example, and real-world attacks might be significantly more complex.