CVE-2025-70152 identifies a critical SQL Injection vulnerability in the Community Project Scholars Tracking System 1.0, a web-based application used for managing scholars' data. The vulnerability exists in two administrative endpoints: /admin/save_user.php and /admin/update_user.php. These endpoints accept POST parameters such as firstname, lastname, username, password, and user_id, which are directly concatenated into SQL queries without any form of input validation, sanitization, or use of prepared statements. Furthermore, these endpoints lack any authentication or authorization checks, allowing unauthenticated attackers to access them freely. Exploiting this vulnerability enables attackers to inject malicious SQL code, potentially leading to unauthorized data access, data modification, or deletion. Given the administrative nature of the endpoints, attackers could manipulate user accounts, escalate privileges, or compromise the entire database. The CVSS 3.1 score of 9.8 reflects the vulnerability's critical impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, combined with its low attack complexity, no required privileges, and no user interaction. Although no public exploits have been reported yet, the vulnerability's characteristics make it highly exploitable. The lack of patch links suggests that a fix is not yet publicly available, increasing the urgency for organizations to implement interim protective measures. This vulnerability falls under CWE-89 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command), a common and dangerous class of injection flaws.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-70152 can be severe. The vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to fully compromise the database of the Scholars Tracking System, leading to exposure of sensitive personal data such as names, usernames, and passwords. This can result in significant privacy violations, regulatory non-compliance (e.g., GDPR), and reputational damage. Additionally, attackers could modify or delete critical user data, disrupting administrative operations and potentially causing denial of service. The ability to manipulate user accounts could facilitate further lateral movement within the organization’s network or privilege escalation. Educational institutions, research organizations, and project management entities using this system are particularly at risk. The critical severity and ease of exploitation mean that attacks could be automated and widespread, increasing the likelihood of data breaches and operational impacts across multiple European countries.

To mitigate CVE-2025-70152, organizations should immediately implement the following measures: 1) Restrict access to the affected endpoints by enforcing strong authentication and authorization controls to ensure only legitimate administrators can access them. 2) Refactor the code to use parameterized SQL queries or prepared statements to prevent SQL Injection attacks. 3) Implement rigorous input validation and sanitization on all user-supplied data, especially POST parameters related to user management. 4) Conduct thorough code audits and penetration testing to identify and remediate similar injection vulnerabilities elsewhere in the application. 5) Monitor logs for suspicious activity targeting the admin endpoints and set up alerts for anomalous SQL errors or injection attempts. 6) If a patch becomes available from the vendor, apply it promptly. 7) Consider deploying Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with SQL Injection detection rules as an interim protective layer. 8) Educate development teams on secure coding practices to prevent recurrence of such vulnerabilities.