CVE-2026-13498: SQL Injection in yashpokharna2555 Restaurant Management System /forgotpassword.php

Technical summary

The vulnerability resides in the POST parameter handler for /forgotpassword.php, where the email argument is processed without adequate input validation or parameterized query protection. This allows classical SQL injection (CWE-89) through improper neutralization of special elements (CWE-74). The attack vector is network-accessible, requires no authentication or user interaction, and has low attack complexity. The accessible CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L) reflects confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts at a HIGH severity level with a score of 7.3.

Business impact

Compromised database confidentiality poses direct risk to customer credentials, personal information, and potentially payment data stored in the restaurant system. Integrity compromise could allow unauthorized modification of user accounts, orders, or business records. The combination of read and write access could enable account takeover, fraudulent transactions, or competitive sabotage. For a restaurant business relying on this system for operations, unpatched exploitation could disrupt service availability and trigger regulatory compliance failures (PCI DSS, data protection laws) if customer payment information is exposed.

Affected systems

The restaurant management system by yashpokharna2555 is affected. The project does not use semantic versioning, making it impossible to identify specific version boundaries or release timelines from vendor advisories. All instances of this application are potentially vulnerable until the developers deploy a remediation.

Exploitability

The exploit is publicly available and the attack is straightforward to execute—no special tools or privileged access required. An attacker needs only to craft a malicious POST request to /forgotpassword.php with SQL injection payloads in the email parameter. The low attack complexity and absence of authentication barriers make this vulnerability highly exploitable in real-world scenarios. Active exploitation risk is elevated given public availability of the exploit.

Remediation

The development team must implement prepared statements or parameterized queries to separate SQL code from user-supplied data. Input validation should enforce strict email format requirements and reject characters commonly used in SQL injection (quotes, semicolons, dashes, etc.). Web application firewalls (WAF) and runtime application self-protection (RASP) can provide temporary detection and blocking. However, only code-level fixes eliminate the root cause. Contact the yashpokharna2555 project via their issue reporting channel to confirm patch status and expected delivery timeline.

Patch guidance

No official patch version has been released as of the publication date (June 28, 2026). The project maintainers were notified early but have not yet responded. Monitor the project's repository and issue tracker for updates. Given the HIGH severity and public exploit availability, prioritize internal code review and temporary compensating controls (WAF rules, input filtering, network segmentation) until an official patch is available. Request patch status directly from the project maintainer if using this system in production.

Detection guidance

Monitor HTTP POST requests to /forgotpassword.php for SQL injection signatures, including unusual characters or SQL keywords (UNION, SELECT, EXEC, etc.) in the email parameter. Log all authentication failures and password recovery attempts, particularly those with malformed email values. Web application firewalls should flag requests containing SQL metacharacters in form fields. Database query logs should be reviewed for unexpected SELECT, UPDATE, or DELETE statements originating from the application. Implement alerting on database access patterns deviating from baseline (bulk data exports, schema enumeration).

Why prioritize this

This vulnerability merits immediate attention because it combines HIGH CVSS severity (7.3), network exploitability, absence of authentication barriers, publicly available exploits, and direct impact on sensitive data. The lack of vendor responsiveness and absence of a patch timeline create operational urgency. Organizations using this restaurant management system should treat this as a critical incident if data sensitivity is high or if the system is internet-exposed.

Risk score, explained

The CVSS 3.1 score of 7.3 (HIGH) reflects a network-accessible SQL injection with no authentication required, low attack complexity, and impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The score appropriately captures the seriousness of remote, unauthenticated database compromise. The public availability of exploits and lack of vendor response elevates real-world risk beyond the base score.

Frequently asked questions