CVE-2019-25748: SQL Injection in Joomla JHotelReservation 6.0.7 — Patch Guidance

Technical summary

The vulnerability exists in the search-hotels endpoint of JHotelReservation 6.0.7, where user-supplied input in the rooms parameter is not properly sanitized before being incorporated into SQL queries. By sending a POST request with a crafted SQL injection payload in the rooms field, an unauthenticated attacker can execute arbitrary SQL commands against the underlying database. The attack has high impact for confidentiality, allowing exfiltration of sensitive information including database structure and version metadata. Integrity impact is limited, and availability is not directly compromised. This is classified as CWE-89 (SQL Injection).

Business impact

Successful exploitation allows attackers to extract sensitive database contents from affected Joomla installations, potentially including customer information, booking details, payment data, and system configuration. This exposure can lead to data breach notification obligations, regulatory penalties under privacy laws such as GDPR, reputational damage, and loss of customer trust. Organizations relying on JHotelReservation for guest management face immediate risk of unauthorized data disclosure without any barrier to entry.

Affected systems

Joomla JHotelReservation version 6.0.7 is affected. The vulnerability impacts all installations of this specific version. If your environment uses a different version of JHotelReservation, verify against the official vendor advisory to confirm whether your release is in-scope. The extension is typically deployed on Joomla hosting environments, so any public-facing hotel or reservation website using this component is at risk.

Exploitability

Exploitation requires minimal effort: an attacker needs only network access to the affected website and the ability to send a crafted HTTP POST request to the search-hotels endpoint. No authentication is required, no user interaction is needed, and no special network configuration is necessary. This makes the vulnerability highly exploitable by a broad range of attackers. The barrier to weaponization is low, and proof-of-concept code could be developed quickly. However, note that this vulnerability is not yet listed on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, meaning active in-the-wild exploitation has not been formally documented at this time.

Remediation

The primary remediation is to upgrade JHotelReservation to a patched version released by the vendor. Verify against the official Joomla JHotelReservation vendor advisory for the minimum safe version number. As an interim mitigation while patching is in progress, restrict network access to the search-hotels endpoint using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or access control lists, implementing SQL injection detection rules. Input validation and encoding at the application layer should also be reviewed and hardened to reject or neutralize SQL metacharacters.

Patch guidance

Apply the vendor's security patch for JHotelReservation as soon as it becomes available. Verify the specific patched version number against the official Joomla security advisory or vendor release notes. Test the patch in a non-production environment first to ensure compatibility with your Joomla installation and other extensions. Schedule patching during a maintenance window to minimize disruption. If a patch is not yet available, maintain compensating controls such as WAF rules and network segmentation until patching is feasible.

Detection guidance

Monitor application logs and Web Application Firewall logs for suspicious POST requests to the search-hotels endpoint, particularly those containing SQL keywords (SELECT, UNION, DROP, INSERT, etc.) or special characters (single quotes, semicolons, dashes, asterisks) in the rooms parameter. Implement database query logging to detect unusual SQL patterns or error messages indicative of injection attempts. Network-based detection should focus on identifying requests with SQL injection payloads targeting the search-hotels path. Regular log review and alerting on CWE-89 exploitation attempts will improve detection speed.

Why prioritize this

This vulnerability merits high priority attention due to its combination of high CVSS score (8.2), complete lack of authentication requirement, zero user interaction needed, remote network exploitability, and potential for direct data exfiltration. Any organization using JHotelReservation 6.0.7 should treat this as urgent, especially those handling customer booking data or payment information. The lack of active exploitation in the wild should not reduce priority, as the simplicity of the attack vector makes widespread exploitation inevitable once attackers become aware of the flaw.

Risk score, explained

The CVSS 3.1 score of 8.2 (HIGH) reflects an Attack Vector of Network (AV:N), Attack Complexity of Low (AC:L), no Privileges Required (PR:N), no User Interaction (UI:N), and Unchanged Scope (S:U). The impact metrics show High Confidentiality (C:H) due to unrestricted database read access, Low Integrity (I:L) indicating limited ability to modify data, and No Availability impact (A:N). This scoring captures the severe risk of sensitive data disclosure while acknowledging that the attack does not typically disrupt service or corrupt data.

Frequently asked questions