CVE-2025-41009 is a critical SQL injection vulnerability identified in the Disenno de Recursos Educativos S.L (DRED) virtual campus platform, impacting all versions of the product. The vulnerability arises from improper neutralization of special elements in SQL commands (CWE-89) specifically through the ‘buscame’ parameter in the ‘/catalogo_c/catalogo.php’ endpoint. An attacker can exploit this flaw by sending crafted POST requests without requiring authentication or user interaction, enabling them to execute arbitrary SQL queries against the backend database. This can result in unauthorized data access, modification, creation, or deletion, severely compromising the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the platform’s data. The CVSS 4.0 base score of 9.3 reflects the vulnerability’s criticality, with network attack vector, low attack complexity, no privileges or user interaction needed, and high impact on all security properties. Although no public exploits have been reported yet, the vulnerability’s characteristics make it a prime target for attackers seeking to compromise educational institutions’ data. The platform’s role in managing educational resources and user data amplifies the risk, as successful exploitation could disrupt academic operations and expose sensitive personal information. The lack of available patches at the time of publication increases urgency for organizations to implement immediate mitigations such as input sanitization, use of prepared statements, and enhanced monitoring. The vulnerability was reserved in April 2025 and published in October 2025 by INCIBE, underscoring its recent discovery and the need for rapid response.

For European organizations, particularly educational institutions using the DRED virtual campus platform, this vulnerability poses a significant threat. Exploitation could lead to unauthorized disclosure of sensitive student and staff data, manipulation or deletion of academic records, and disruption of educational services. Such impacts could result in regulatory penalties under GDPR due to data breaches, reputational damage, and operational downtime. The critical nature of the vulnerability means attackers can remotely compromise systems without authentication, increasing the likelihood of widespread exploitation if left unmitigated. The educational sector’s reliance on digital platforms for remote learning and administration heightens the potential operational impact. Additionally, the exposure of personal data could facilitate further attacks such as identity theft or phishing campaigns targeting affected individuals. The absence of known exploits currently provides a window for proactive defense, but the high severity score indicates that the threat could escalate rapidly once exploit code becomes available. European organizations must consider the risk of cascading effects on interconnected systems and third-party services integrated with the platform.

Given the critical severity and lack of available patches, European organizations should immediately implement several specific mitigations: 1) Apply strict input validation and sanitization on the ‘buscame’ parameter and all user inputs to prevent injection of malicious SQL code. 2) Refactor database queries to use parameterized statements or prepared queries, eliminating direct concatenation of user inputs into SQL commands. 3) Deploy Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block SQL injection patterns targeting the vulnerable endpoint. 4) Conduct thorough code reviews and security testing focusing on SQL injection vectors within the platform. 5) Monitor database logs and application behavior for unusual query patterns or data access anomalies indicative of exploitation attempts. 6) Restrict database user permissions to the minimum necessary, limiting the potential damage from successful injection. 7) Engage with the vendor for official patches or updates and plan for rapid deployment once available. 8) Educate IT and security teams about the vulnerability specifics to enhance detection and response capabilities. 9) Consider network segmentation to isolate the virtual campus platform from critical infrastructure to reduce attack surface. 10) Prepare incident response plans tailored to SQL injection incidents to minimize recovery time and data loss.