Overview
CVE-2025-63892 describes a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability discovered in SourceCodester Student Grades Management System version 1.0. This medium severity vulnerability allows an attacker to inject malicious scripts into the application, potentially compromising user accounts and sensitive data. The vulnerability resides in the create_classroom function within the /classroom.php file.
Technical Details
The vulnerability is caused by insufficient input sanitization within the create_classroom function. Specifically, when creating a new classroom, the name and description parameters are not properly sanitized before being stored in the database. An attacker can exploit this by injecting malicious JavaScript code into either of these fields. When other users view the created classroom (e.g., students or administrators), the injected script will be executed in their browser, allowing the attacker to perform actions on their behalf.
Affected Component: My Classrooms Management Page (/classroom.php)
Vulnerable Function: create_classroom
Affected Parameters: name, description
CVSS Analysis
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) provides a standardized way to assess the severity of security vulnerabilities. CVE-2025-63892 has a CVSS score of 6.8 (Medium).
While a full breakdown of the CVSS vector is not available, a score of 6.8 typically indicates that the vulnerability requires some level of user interaction and has the potential to cause moderate damage to confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Likely vector components include:
- Attack Vector: Network
- Attack Complexity: Low
- Privileges Required: Low (Likely requires authentication to access classroom creation functionality)
- User Interaction: Required (Victim must view the classroom containing the malicious script)
- Scope: Changed
- Confidentiality Impact: Low
- Integrity Impact: Low
- Availability Impact: Low
Possible Impact
Successful exploitation of this XSS vulnerability can have several negative consequences:
- Account Compromise: An attacker can steal user session cookies, allowing them to impersonate legitimate users and gain unauthorized access to the system.
- Data Theft: Malicious scripts can be used to steal sensitive data, such as student grades, personal information, or administrative credentials.
- Defacement: The application’s appearance can be altered, potentially damaging the reputation of the educational institution or organization using the system.
- Malware Distribution: The vulnerability could be used to distribute malware to users who access the compromised pages.
Mitigation or Patch Steps
To mitigate this vulnerability, the following steps are recommended:
- Input Sanitization: Implement proper input sanitization and validation for all user-supplied data, especially the
nameanddescriptionparameters in thecreate_classroomfunction. Use a robust XSS filtering library or function to escape or remove potentially malicious characters and scripts. - Output Encoding: Encode all data before displaying it in the browser. This will prevent malicious scripts from being executed. Use context-aware encoding appropriate for the HTML context.
- Regular Security Audits: Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing to identify and address potential vulnerabilities.
- Update Software: Monitor SourceCodester for updates to the Student Grades Management System and promptly apply any patches or upgrades that address security vulnerabilities. Since this vulnerability is published now, it is important to update to a patched version if one exists. Contact SourceCodester support for update information.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF): Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to detect and block malicious requests targeting XSS vulnerabilities.
