Overview
This blog post delves into the critical vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-54119, which exists in ADOdb, a PHP database class library. This security flaw is of particular concern because it affects a wide array of web applications and systems using ADOdb versions 5.22.9 and below, as it may allow a malicious actor to execute arbitrary SQL statements. This vulnerability is significant due to the potential for system compromise or sensitive data leakage, which could lead to severe consequences for businesses, including financial loss and damage to reputation.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-54119
Severity: Critical (CVSS 10.0)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: System Compromise, Potential Data Leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
ADOdb PHP Database Class Library | 5.22.9 and below
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability arises due to improper escaping of a query parameter in the metaColumns(), metaForeignKeys() or metaIndexes() methods of the ADOdb library when connecting to a sqlite3 database. A malicious attacker can craft a specially designed table name that, when used in these methods, can lead to the execution of arbitrary SQL statements. This exploit can manipulate or extract data from the database, potentially leading to full system compromise or data leakage.
Conceptual Example Code
Here is a conceptual example of how an attacker might exploit this vulnerability:
SELECT * FROM malicious_table_name'; DROP TABLE sensitive_data;--In this example, the ‘malicious_table_name’ is the crafted table name that is passed into the vulnerable methods (metaColumns(), metaForeignKeys() or metaIndexes()). The crafted table name includes SQL syntax to drop a table named ‘sensitive_data’, demonstrating how an attacker could manipulate the database structure or data.
Recommended Mitigation Steps
The recommended solution to mitigate this vulnerability is to upgrade to ADOdb version 5.22.10, which contains a fix for this issue. In situations where an immediate upgrade is not feasible, consider implementing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) as a temporary measure. However, these should not replace patching the vulnerability as they might not fully protect against all possible exploitation methods. Additionally, it is best practice to only pass controlled data to the metaColumns(), metaForeignKeys(), and metaIndexes() method’s $table parameter to prevent similar vulnerabilities.