ESAPI esapi-java-legacy up to 2.6.2.0 SQL Injection Defense Encoder.encodeForSQL special element

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in ESAPI esapi-java-legacy and classified as problematic. This issue affects the interface Encoder.encodeForSQL of the SQL Injection Defense. An attack leads to an improper neutralization of special elements. The attack may be initiated remotely and an exploit has been disclosed to the public. The project was contacted early about this issue and handled it with an exceptional level of professionalism. Upgrading to version 2.7.0.0 is able to address this issue. Commit ID f75ac2c2647a81d2cfbdc9c899f8719c240ed512 is disabling the feature by default and any attempt to use it will trigger a warning. And commit ID e2322914304d9b1c52523ff24be495b7832f6a56 is updating the misleading Java class documentation to warn about the risks.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in ESAPI esapi-java-legacy (Software Library) and classified as critical. This issue affects the function Encoder.encodeForSQL of the component SQL Injection Defense. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a special element vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-138. The product receives input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could be interpreted as control elements or syntactic markers when they are sent to a downstream component. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

The weakness was released by Longlong Gong. The advisory is shared at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-5878. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. Technical details as well as a public exploit are known.

A public exploit has been developed by Longlong Gong. It is declared as proof-of-concept. The project was contacted early about this issue and handled it with an exceptional level of professionalism. In the new release the feature was disabled by default and any attempt to use it will trigger a warning. Furthermore, the misleading Java class documentation was updated to warn about the risks. The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 242493 (Debian dla-4246 : libowasp-esapi-java - security update), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 2.7.0.0 eliminates this vulnerability. The upgrade is hosted for download at github.com. Applying the patch f75ac2c2647a81d2cfbdc9c899f8719c240ed512 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (242493). github.com is providing further details. Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Software Library

Vendor

• ESAPI

Name

• esapi-java-legacy

Version

• 2.0-rc10
• 2.0-rc11
• 2.0.1
• 2.0GA1
• 2.1.0
• 2.1.0.1
• 2.2.0.0
• 2.2.0.0-RC1
• 2.2.0.0-RC2
• 2.2.0.0-RC3
• 2.2.1.0
• 2.2.1.0-RC1
• 2.2.1.1
• 2.2.2.0
• 2.2.3.0
• 2.2.3.1
• 2.3.0.0
• 2.4.0.0
• 2.5.0.0
• 2.5.1.0
• 2.5.2.0
• 2.5.3.0
• 2.5.3.1
• 2.5.4.0
• 2.5.5.0
• 2.6.0.0
• 2.6.1.0
• 2.6.2.0

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/ESAPI/esapi-java-legacy/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

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Entryinfo

Submitinfo

Accepted

• Submit #590149: ESAPI esapi-java-legacy 2.6.2.0 SQL injection filtering bypass1 (by uglory)

Duplicate

• Submit #XXXXXX: Xxxxx Xxxxx-xxxx-xxxxxx X.x.x.x Xxx Xxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxx (by uglory)

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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