External risk intelligence

Uniclare Student Portal v2 SQL Injection Allows Database Inference

CVE advisorySeverity: CRITICAL (CVSS 9.8)

CVE-2025-57515

The vulnerability affects a student portal, which is a type of web application typically designed to be accessed by students and faculty over the internet. As an externally reachable web-based service, it fits the profile of a commonly internet-facing application, making public exposure and reachability likely in standard deployment scenarios.

SQL Injection

Halo Surface Signal: 4 out of 5 — likely to be public-facing.

External exposure likelihood

Horizon Alert

Summary of the vulnerability and why it matters

A critical vulnerability in the Uniclare Student Portal allows attackers to execute malicious commands, potentially leading to unauthorized access and manipulation of sensitive student data. This issue affects a web-based application designed for external access, raising concerns about potential exposure to unauthorized users.

  • Remote attackers can inject malicious commands.
  • Critical flaw impacts student data accessibility.
  • Confirm relevance and exposure of student portals.

Attack Path

How an attacker could exploit the issue

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending specially crafted SQL commands through input fields on the Uniclare Student Portal. This could allow them to manipulate database queries, potentially leading to unauthorized access and modification of sensitive information.

  • No authentication required.
  • Inject SQL via input fields.
  • Database compromise and data exposure.

Live Threat

Current exploitation, exposure, and threat context

A SQL injection vulnerability in Uniclare Student Portal could allow remote attackers to inject arbitrary SQL commands. When supported by the advisory, this may enable the execution of time-delay functions to infer database responses, potentially affecting system data and service behavior.

  • Database information could be at risk.
  • Injecting malicious SQL commands.
  • Inferring sensitive database responses.

Operational Fix

Recommended remediation, mitigation, and detection steps

The Uniclare Student Portal, being a web application, likely falls under the purview of application owners or a dedicated platform team responsible for its operation and security. The initial step involves identifying all instances of the student portal, assessing their reachability and criticality to business operations, and then locating the specific owner accountable for each instance. Remediation planning should then be prioritized based on these findings.

  • Application or platform teams should own.
  • Verify portal reachability and business criticality.
  • Plan remediation based on identified risk.

Supplementary metadata

Validate whether this threat affects your internet-facing exposure.

Halo Threat Intelligence helps prioritize remediation with Halo Surface Signal and H/A/L/O context. Start exposure validation with a free external attack surface trial.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Uniclare Student Portal?

Uniclare Student Portal v2 is a web-based software application designed to facilitate digital interaction between academic institutions and their students. It serves as a central hub where users typically log in to access course materials, grades, and personal academic records, often functioning as a portal that necessitates continuous connectivity for remote access by authorized users.

How does CVE-2025-57515 work?

This vulnerability is classified as a SQL injection (CWE-89). It occurs when the software fails to properly sanitize user-supplied data in input fields. An attacker can input malicious SQL commands that the database then processes as legitimate instructions. By using time-delay functions, the attacker can force the database to pause, allowing them to confirm or infer sensitive information bit by bit based on how long the system takes to respond.

Can any input field trigger this SQL injection?

The vulnerability is triggered specifically by input fields that interact directly with the backend database without sufficient filtering. While the bug allows for the execution of arbitrary commands, it does not imply that every single part of the portal is vulnerable. The exploit requires reaching a specific entry point where the application unsafely passes user input to the database engine.

Is my instance of the portal at risk?

According to Halo Surface Signal, this software is commonly deployed as an internet-facing application to allow students and faculty remote access. Because the service is intended for external reachability, any instance connected to the internet is likely exposed to remote attackers. If your deployment is accessible from the public web, it is potentially reachable by external threats.

What should I do if I run this software?

Begin by inventorying all instances of the Uniclare Student Portal within your environment to understand your total footprint. Determine which instances are reachable from the internet versus those kept on internal networks. Once mapped, identify the specific teams responsible for these applications so they can prioritize remediation planning and evaluate the necessary steps to secure these input fields against unauthorized database queries.