CVE-2005-3853
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedSQL injection vulnerability in snews.php in sNews 1.3 and earlier allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands via the (1) id and (2) category parameters to index.php.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceSQL injection vulnerability in snews.php in sNews 1.3 and earlier allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands via the id and category parameters in index.php. Unsanitized user input is directly concatenated into SQL queries.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 1.3= 1.2CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Locate sNews installationSearch the web root for the file 'snews.php' or directories containing 'snews' in the name. Check for index.php in the same directory.Affected if snews.php exists in the web-accessible directory tree
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Identify the sNews versionOpen snews.php and look for a version string near the top of the file, typically in comments or a variable definition such as '$snews_version' or 'version: X.X'.Affected if The version is 1.3, 1.2, or any version number less than or equal to 1.3
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Verify the vulnerable parameter handling existsOpen index.php from the sNews installation and search for occurrences where '$_GET["id"]' or '$_GET["category"]' are directly concatenated into SQL query strings without escaping, quoting, or use of prepared statements.Affected if The code shows direct concatenation of these GET parameters into SQL queries, for example: mysql_query("SELECT * FROM... WHERE id=" . $_GET["id"])
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Confirm the database connection uses the vulnerable query patternExamine the snews.php file for SQL query functions (such as mysql_query, mysql_fetch_array, or similar) that use the $id or $category variables directly in the query string without sanitization functions like mysql_real_escape_string or parameterized query methods.Affected if SQL queries contain unsanitized $id or $category variables directly interpolated into the query string
The system is affected if sNews version 1.3 or earlier is installed and the index.php code directly concatenates the 'id' or 'category' GET parameters into SQL queries without sanitization or prepared statements.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataImplement parameterized queries (prepared statements) for all SQL queries using the id and category parameters. Apply input validation as a defense-in-depth measure. Upgrade to a patched version of sNews if available.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2005-3853 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2005-3853 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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