CVE-2026-78197 in Simple Online Food Ordering System
Summary
by MITRE • 08/24/2026
A weakness has been identified in SourceCodester Simple Online Food Ordering System 1.0. This vulnerability affects unknown code of the file /fos/admin/ajax.php?action=save_user. This manipulation of the argument Username causes sql injection. The attack may be initiated remotely. The exploit has been made available to the public and could be used for attacks.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/24/2026
The SourceCodester Simple Online Food Ordering System version 1.0 contains a critical security flaw within its administrative interface, specifically located in the file /fos/admin/ajax.php when processing requests with the action parameter set to save_user. This vulnerability manifests as an SQL injection weakness resulting from improper validation and sanitization of user-supplied input, particularly the Username argument passed during account creation or modification operations. The application fails to properly escape special characters within this input before incorporating it into backend database queries, allowing attackers to inject arbitrary Structured Query Language commands that can alter the intended logic of the query executed by the underlying database management system.
This type of vulnerability is classified under Common Weakness Enumeration as CWE-89 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command and aligns with MITRE ATT&CK technique T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application, indicating that the flaw exists in a component accessible to external actors without prior authentication. The operational impact of this weakness is severe because it enables remote attackers to bypass access controls, extract sensitive data such as user credentials or personal information stored in the database, modify existing records, or potentially execute administrative commands depending on the privileges granted to the database account used by the web application. Since the exploit has been made publicly available, automated scanning tools and malicious actors can readily leverage this vulnerability for widespread attacks against instances of this software still in use.
The presence of such a flaw highlights significant deficiencies in secure coding practices within the development lifecycle of the SourceCodester project, particularly regarding input validation on server-side scripts handling administrative functions. Attackers typically exploit SQL injection by appending logical operators or union-based payloads to the username field, which can result in unauthorized data disclosure through error messages or blind extraction techniques that infer database contents based on application responses. Given that this is an online ordering system, successful exploitation could lead to significant business disruption and compliance violations related to data protection regulations due to the exposure of customer payment details and personal identifiers.
To mitigate this vulnerability, immediate remediation efforts should focus on implementing parameterized queries or prepared statements for all database interactions involving user-supplied input, ensuring that the distinction between code and data is strictly maintained by the database driver rather than relying on manual string concatenation with escaped characters. Additionally, developers must enforce strict type checking and length constraints on the username field to reject unexpected character sets such as SQL syntax symbols like single quotes or semicolons at the application layer before they reach the backend logic. Upgrading to a patched version of the software if available is the most effective long-term solution, while temporary mitigations include deploying Web Application Firewalls configured with rulesets capable of detecting and blocking common SQL injection patterns in HTTP request parameters. Regular security audits and static code analysis tools should be integrated into the development process to identify similar weaknesses across other modules before deployment to production environments.