Overview
We are delving into the details of a critical vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-28983, which exploits the improper neutralization of special elements used within an SQL command, colloquially known as ‘SQL Injection’. This vulnerability specifically targets Click & Pledge Connect, a widely used software in the non-profit sector for fundraising and donor management. The severity of the matter escalates as the exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to privilege escalation, potentially compromising the entire system or leading to data leakage.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-28983
Severity: Critical (9.8 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: System Compromise and Potential Data Leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Click & Pledge Connect | 25.04010101 through WP6.8
How the Exploit Works
The exploitation occurs when an attacker injects malicious SQL code into the application. Here, Click & Pledge Connect fails to properly sanitize user input for special SQL characters. An attacker can craftily manipulate the SQL query, which can modify and extract data from the database, or even execute administrative operations on the database, such as shutdown the DBMS.
Conceptual Example Code
Let’s consider an example of how this SQL Injection vulnerability might be exploited. An attacker could send a malicious HTTP request like this:
POST /login HTTP/1.1
Host: vulnerable-site.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
username=admin' --&password=In this example, the SQL command ends up being something like:
SELECT * FROM users WHERE username='admin' --' AND password=''The `–` in SQL is a comment out rest of the line, effectively ignoring the password check. This results in the attacker gaining admin access without needing the correct password.
Mitigation
The immediate mitigation guidance for this vulnerability is to apply the vendor’s patch. If for any reason the patch cannot be applied immediately, organizations should attempt to use a web application firewall (WAF) or an intrusion detection system (IDS) as a temporary mitigation measure to prevent potential exploitation of this vulnerability. However, these temporary measures are not substitutes for applying patches from the vendor, and should only be used as interim solutions until the patch can be applied.
In the long term, it is crucial to adopt secure coding practices to prevent SQL Injection vulnerabilities. These may include the use of parameterized queries, input validation and sanitization, and least privilege principles in database access controls.