CVE-2020-25955 in Student Management System
Summary
by MITRE • 12/09/2020
SourceCodester Student Management System Project in PHP version 1.0 is vulnerable to stored a cross-site scripting (XSS) via the 'add subject' tab.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/14/2020
The CVE-2020-25955 vulnerability affects the SourceCodester Student Management System Project version 1.0, a PHP-based web application designed for educational institutions to manage student records and academic data. This particular vulnerability manifests as a stored cross-site scripting flaw that specifically impacts the 'add subject' functionality within the system's user interface. The vulnerability represents a significant security weakness that could potentially compromise the integrity and confidentiality of educational data managed through this platform.
The technical flaw occurs when user input submitted through the 'add subject' tab is not properly sanitized or validated before being stored in the application's database and subsequently rendered back to users. This allows malicious actors to inject malicious scripts that persist within the system's data storage, making the vulnerability classified as stored XSS rather than reflected XSS. When legitimate users view subject information or interact with the affected functionality, their browsers execute the malicious scripts, potentially enabling attackers to steal session cookies, redirect users to malicious sites, or perform actions on behalf of authenticated users. The vulnerability directly maps to CWE-79, which defines Cross-Site Scripting as a common weakness in web applications where untrusted data is improperly handled during web page generation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data exposure, as it creates potential attack vectors for more sophisticated compromises within educational environments. Attackers could exploit this vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to student records, manipulate academic data, or establish persistent access points within the institution's network infrastructure. The stored nature of the XSS vulnerability means that once injected, malicious payloads remain active until manually removed from the database, potentially affecting multiple users over extended periods. This vulnerability particularly threatens the integrity of student information systems and could lead to data breaches that violate privacy regulations such as FERPA in educational contexts.
Organizations utilizing this system should implement immediate mitigations including input validation and output encoding for all user-supplied data, particularly within the subject management functionality. The recommended approach involves implementing proper sanitization of all input fields through the use of allowlists, HTML entity encoding, and Content Security Policy headers to prevent script execution. Additionally, regular security audits should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other application components, as this represents a common weakness in web applications that aligns with ATT&CK technique T1531 for Account Access Token Manipulation and T1059.007 for Command and Scripting Interpreter using JavaScript. Database administrators should also implement regular monitoring of stored data for malicious content and establish proper access controls to limit the potential impact of such vulnerabilities.