Overview
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) recently identified a significant vulnerability in the Hospital Management System v4, dubbed as CVE-2023-41532. This vulnerability is a SQL Injection vulnerability that exists in the doctor_contact parameter of the doctorsearch.php file. As the Hospital Management System v4 is widely used in healthcare facilities to manage patient data, a successful exploit would potentially lead to system compromise or data leakage, which could have serious implications for hospitals and their patients.
Given the high CVSS severity score of 8.8, it’s clear that this vulnerability could have a significant impact on the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive patient data. Therefore, it’s vital for system administrators and cybersecurity professionals to understand the details of this vulnerability and implement the necessary mitigation measures.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2023-41532
Severity: High (CVSS: 8.8)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Impact: System compromise, Potential data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Hospital Management System | v4
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability lies in the doctorsearch.php file where the doctor_contact parameter is mishandled. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by injecting malicious SQL code into the affected parameter. This injected code can manipulate the database queries being executed on the server, potentially allowing the attacker to view, modify, or delete data in the database.
Conceptual Example Code
Here is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited:
POST /doctorsearch.php HTTP/1.1
Host: targethospital.example.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
doctor_contact=' OR '1'='1'; --In this example, the attacker sends a POST request with a malicious SQL payload in the doctor_contact parameter. The `’ OR ‘1’=’1′; — ` payload is a common SQL Injection technique that manipulates the logic of the SQL query to return all rows in the database, as ‘1’=’1′ will always be true.
Mitigation and Recommendations
The best way to remediate this vulnerability is by applying the vendor patch as soon as it is available. However, if the patch is not yet available or if patching is not immediately possible, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to detect and prevent SQL Injection attacks can serve as a temporary mitigation.
It is also recommended to follow secure coding practices that prevent SQL Injection vulnerabilities, such as using prepared statements or parameterized queries to ensure that user input is properly sanitized before it is included in a SQL query.
Furthermore, regular vulnerability scans and penetration testing can help identify and mitigate these types of vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.