SourceCodester Pharmacy Sales and Inventory System SQL Injection Vulnerability

A SQL injection vulnerability has been identified in SourceCodester Pharmacy Sales and Inventory System version 1.0. The issue arises in the file '/ajax.php?action=login', where the 'username' parameter is not properly validated, allowing attackers to inject malicious SQL queries. This vulnerability can be exploited remotely, without any authentication, potentially leading to unauthorized database access, data manipulation, and leakage of sensitive information.

Impact

Exploitation of this vulnerability allows for SQL injection, enabling attackers to interfere with the application's database queries. This could result in unauthorized data access, data modification or deletion, and in some cases, executing administrative operations on the database.

Reproduction

To reproduce this vulnerability, send a POST request to '/ajax.php?action=login' with an injected SQL payload in the 'username' parameter. The injection can be crafted to exploit time-based blind SQL injection techniques, such as using 'SLEEP' functions to create a delay as a response indicator.

Remediation

It is recommended to use prepared statements and parameter binding to prevent SQL injection. Additionally, input validation and filtering should be implemented to ensure user input conforms to expected formats. Minimizing database user permissions and conducting regular security audits can also help mitigate such vulnerabilities.