CVE-2019-9053: An issue was discovered in CMS Made Simple 2.2.8. It is possible with the News module, through a crafted URL, to achieve unauthenticated blind time-based SQL…

PriorityP271high8.1CVSS 3.0

AVNACHPRNUINSUCHIHAH

EXPLOIT

EPSS

55.96%

98.9th percentile

An issue was discovered in CMS Made Simple 2.2.8. It is possible with the News module, through a crafted URL, to achieve unauthenticated blind time-based SQL injection via the m1_idlist parameter.

Affected

1 ranges

Vendor	Product	Version range	Fixed in
cmsmadesimple	cms_made_simple	—	—

Detection & IOCsextracted from sources · hover to see the quote

url&m1_idlist=a,b,1,5))+and+(select+sleep(<TIME>)+from+cms_users+where+password+like+0x<HEX>25+and+user_id+like+0x31)+--+↗

url&m1_idlist=a,b,1,5))+and+(select+sleep(<TIME>)+from+cms_users+where+username+like+0x<HEX>25+and+user_id+like+0x31)+--+↗

url&m1_idlist=a,b,1,5))+and+(select+sleep(<TIME>)+from+cms_users+where+email+like+0x<HEX>25+and+user_id+like+0x31)+--+↗

commandselect+sleep(<TIME>)+from+cms_users+where+password+like+0x<HEX>25+and+user_id+like+0x31↗

→Detect blind time-based SQLi via the m1_idlist GET parameter containing SQL sleep() injection patterns targeting the CMS Made Simple News module. Look for URL-encoded payloads with patterns like 'select+sleep(' or 'select sleep(' in the m1_idlist parameter value. ↗
→The SQLi payload structure uses a specific pattern: 'a,b,1,5))+and+(select+sleep(N)+from+cms_users+where+<field>+like+0x<hex>25+and+user_id+like+0x31)+--+' injected into m1_idlist. Alert on requests where m1_idlist contains 'cms_users' or 'sleep(' substrings. ↗
→The exploit enumerates salt, username, email, and password from the cms_users table character-by-character using time delays. Anomalous response latency spikes on repeated requests to the News module URL with varying m1_idlist values is a strong behavioral indicator. ↗
→The attack is unauthenticated; no session cookie or login is required. Monitor for high-frequency GET requests to the CMS Made Simple News module endpoint with m1_idlist parameter from a single source IP. ↗

·The TIME threshold used for sleep-based detection is configurable in the exploit script; defenders should tune anomaly detection baselines accordingly, as a low TIME value may be harder to distinguish from legitimate slow queries. ↗
·The exploit targets CMS Made Simple version 2.2.8 specifically via the News module; other versions may or may not be affected and should be tested independently. ↗

CVSS provenance

nvdv3.08.1HIGHCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvdv2.06.8MEDIUMAV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

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