{"id":71287,"date":"2025-09-04T19:48:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:48:03","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-09-27T18:11:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T00:11:41","slug":"cve-2025-50979-sql-injection-vulnerability-in-nodebb-s-search-categories-api-endpoint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-50979-sql-injection-vulnerability-in-nodebb-s-search-categories-api-endpoint\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-50979: SQL Injection Vulnerability in NodeBB&#8217;s Search-Categories API Endpoint<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We are addressing a serious vulnerability that affects NodeBB version 4.3.0. The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-50979, exposes the software to SQL injection attacks via its search-categories API endpoint (\/api\/v3\/search\/categories). This flaw allows malicious actors to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-7384-php-object-injection-vulnerability-in-wordpress-plugin-leads-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"79044\">potentially compromise the system<\/a> or cause data leakage. As an open-source forum software written in Node.js, NodeBB is used by many online communities, making this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-51991-server-side-template-injection-vulnerability-in-xwiki-s-administration-interface\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"81391\">vulnerability a significant concern for moderators and administrators<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-50979<br \/>\nSeverity: High (8.6 CVSS Severity Score)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Network<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: None<br \/>\nUser Interaction: None<br \/>\nImpact: System compromise and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-55731-sql-injection-vulnerability-in-frappe-framework-leading-to-potential-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"79256\">potential data<\/a> leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-709575738\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 720px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center; letter-spacing: -0.02em;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 10px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 42px; height: 42px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    Share secrets securely\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 14px; color: #d1d5db;\">\r\n    Ameeba is private infrastructure for communication and sensitive work built on encrypted identity instead of exposed corporate identity systems.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 18px; color: #a1a1aa;\">\r\n    Passwords, credentials, confidential files, screenshots, internal discussions, sensitive AI context, and private coordination should not become exposed across ordinary communication platforms.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #e4e4e7;\">\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Private Spaces for organizations and teams<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, files, and notes<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Sensitive AI work and protected collaboration<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Built for information that cannot leak<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #ffffff;\">\r\n    Our mission is to secure human work alongside AI.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Download Ameeba\r\n    <\/a>\r\n\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Learn More\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>NodeBB | 4.3.0<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The vulnerability stems from a lack of proper sanitization of the search query parameter in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52395-remote-arbitrary-code-execution-vulnerability-in-roadcute-api-v-1\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"82586\">search-categories API<\/a> endpoint. As a result, an unauthenticated, remote attacker can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-8714-critical-postgresql-vulnerability-allowing-malicious-code-injection-by-superusers\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"80647\">inject boolean-based blind and PostgreSQL<\/a> error-based payloads. This allows the attacker to manipulate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49759-sql-injection-vulnerability-in-sql-server-potentially-enabling-privilege-escalation-and-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"79145\">SQL queries executed by the server and access sensitive data<\/a>, possibly leading to a system compromise or data leakage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-1127866588\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a conceptual example of how an attacker might exploit this vulnerability. Note that the &#8220;malicious_payload&#8221; below is a placeholder for actual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-6184-time-based-sql-injection-vulnerability-in-tutor-lms-pro-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"79102\">SQL injection<\/a> payloads.<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">GET \/api\/v3\/search\/categories?search={malicious_payload} HTTP\/1.1\nHost: target.example.com<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>This request illustrates how an attacker could send a malicious <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2024-58259-denial-of-service-vulnerability-in-rancher-manager-due-to-unrestricted-payload-size\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"85825\">payload within the search parameter to the vulnerable<\/a> endpoint.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitigation and Prevention<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Users of NodeBB 4.3.0 should immediately apply the vendor-provided patch to remediate this vulnerability. In the absence of a patch, you can temporarily mitigate this issue by employing a web application firewall (WAF) or intrusion detection system (IDS). These systems can be configured to detect and block suspicious payloads in the search query parameter of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-5997-privileged-api-misuse-leads-to-potential-system-compromise-in-beamsec-phishpro\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"80808\">search-categories API<\/a> endpoint.<br \/>\nRemember, it&#8217;s essential to regularly update your software and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-55708-sql-injection-vulnerability-in-expresstech-systems-quiz-and-survey-master\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"79115\">systems to prevent such vulnerabilities<\/a> from being exploited. Cybersecurity is not a one-time task but a continuous process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview We are addressing a serious vulnerability that affects NodeBB version 4.3.0. The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-50979, exposes the software to SQL injection attacks via its search-categories API endpoint (\/api\/v3\/search\/categories). This flaw allows malicious actors to potentially compromise the system or cause data leakage. As an open-source forum software written in Node.js, NodeBB is used [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[74],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-71287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","attack_vector-sql-injection"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71287"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78624,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71287\/revisions\/78624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71287"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=71287"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=71287"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=71287"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=71287"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=71287"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=71287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}