CVE-2024-12612 identifies a critical SQL Injection vulnerability within the dasinfomedia School Management System plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 93.2.0. The root cause lies in improper neutralization of special elements in SQL commands (CWE-89), specifically due to insufficient escaping of user-supplied parameters and the absence of prepared statements in multiple AJAX actions. This flaw enables unauthenticated remote attackers to append arbitrary SQL queries to existing database commands, facilitating unauthorized access to sensitive information stored in the backend database. The vulnerability does not require authentication or user interaction, increasing its exploitability. The plugin’s widespread use in educational environments makes this a significant threat vector. Although no known exploits have been reported in the wild yet, the vulnerability’s characteristics and high CVSS score (7.5) indicate a strong potential for exploitation. The attack vector is network-based (AV:N), with low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), and no user interaction needed (UI:N). The impact primarily compromises confidentiality (C:H) without affecting integrity or availability. The lack of patches at the time of disclosure necessitates immediate attention from administrators to mitigate risk.

The primary impact of CVE-2024-12612 is the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive data stored within the School Management System’s database. This can include personally identifiable information (PII) of students, staff, and faculty, academic records, and potentially administrative credentials or configuration data. Such data leakage can lead to privacy violations, regulatory non-compliance (e.g., GDPR, FERPA), reputational damage, and potential follow-on attacks such as phishing or identity theft. Since the vulnerability does not affect data integrity or availability, it does not directly enable data manipulation or denial of service. However, the ease of exploitation without authentication or user interaction significantly raises the risk profile, especially for educational institutions relying on this plugin. The exposure of sensitive educational data can have long-term consequences for affected organizations and individuals. Additionally, attackers could use the extracted information to pivot to other internal systems or escalate privileges.

1. Immediate mitigation involves disabling or restricting access to the vulnerable AJAX endpoints if possible until a patch is available. 2. Monitor network traffic for suspicious SQL injection patterns targeting the plugin’s AJAX actions. 3. Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules specifically designed to detect and block SQL injection attempts against the plugin parameters. 4. Restrict database user permissions associated with the plugin to the minimum necessary, preventing unauthorized data access even if injection occurs. 5. Regularly back up databases and ensure backups are secure and tested for restoration. 6. Once the vendor releases a patch, promptly update the plugin to the fixed version. 7. Conduct code reviews and penetration testing focused on input validation and SQL query construction in custom or third-party WordPress plugins. 8. Educate administrators on the risks of installing unvetted plugins and maintaining up-to-date software. 9. Consider isolating the WordPress environment hosting the plugin to limit lateral movement in case of compromise.