SQL Injection

SQL Injection

SQL injection is a code injection technique that might destroy your database.

SQL injection is one of the most common web hacking techniques.

SQL injection is the placement of malicious code in SQL statements, via web page input.

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SQL in Web Pages

SQL injection usually occurs when you ask a user for input, like their username/userid, and instead of a name/id, the user gives you an SQL statement that you will unknowingly run on your database.

Look at the following example which creates a SELECT statement by adding a variable (txtUserId) to a select string. The variable is fetched from user input (getRequestString):

Example

txtUserId = getRequestString("UserId");
txtSQL = "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserId = " + txtUserId;

The rest of this chapter describes the potential dangers of using user input in SQL statements.

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SQL Injection Based on 1=1 is Always True

Look at the example above again. The original purpose of the code was to create an SQL statement to select a user, with a given user id.

If there is nothing to prevent a user from entering "wrong" input, the user can enter some "smart" input like this:

UserId: 

Then, the SQL statement will look like this:

SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserId = 105 OR 1=1;

The SQL above is valid and will return ALL rows from the "Users" table, since OR 1=1 is always TRUE.

Does the example above look dangerous? What if the "Users" table contains names and passwords?

The SQL statement above is much the same as this:

SELECT UserId, Name, Password FROM Users WHERE UserId = 105 or 1=1;

A hacker might get access to all the user names and passwords in a database, by simply inserting 105 OR 1=1 into the input field.

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SQL Injection Based on ""="" is Always True

Here is an example of a user login on a web site:

Username:

Password:

Example

uName = getRequestString("username");
uPass = getRequestString("userpassword");

sql = 'SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Name ="' + uName + '" AND Pass ="' + uPass + '"'

Result

SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Name ="John Doe" AND Pass ="myPass"

A hacker might get access to user names and passwords in a database by simply inserting " OR ""=" into the user name or password text box:

User Name:

Password:

The code at the server will create a valid SQL statement like this:

Result

SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Name ="" or ""="" AND Pass ="" or ""=""

The SQL above is valid and will return all rows from the "Users" table, since OR ""="" is always TRUE.

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SQL Injection Based on Batched SQL Statements 

Most databases support batched SQL statement.

A batch of SQL statements is a group of two or more SQL statements, separated by semicolons.

The SQL statement below will return all rows from the "Users" table, then delete the "Suppliers" table.

Example

SELECT * FROM Users; DROP TABLE Suppliers

Look at the following example:

Example

txtUserId = getRequestString("UserId");
txtSQL = "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserId = " + txtUserId;

And the following input:

User id: 

The valid SQL statement would look like this:

Result

SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserId = 105; DROP TABLE Suppliers;

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Use SQL Parameters for Protection

To protect a web site from SQL injection, you can use SQL parameters.

SQL parameters are values that are added to an SQL query at execution time, in a controlled manner.

ASP.NET Razor Example

txtUserId = getRequestString("UserId");
txtSQL = "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserId = @0";
db.Execute(txtSQL,txtUserId);

Note that parameters are represented in the SQL statement by a @ marker.

The SQL engine checks each parameter to ensure that it is correct for its column and are treated literally, and not as part of the SQL to be executed.

Another Example

txtNam = getRequestString("CustomerName");
txtAdd = getRequestString("Address");
txtCit = getRequestString("City");
txtSQL = "INSERT INTO Customers (CustomerName,Address,City) Values(@0,@1,@2)";
db.Execute(txtSQL,txtNam,txtAdd,txtCit);

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Examples

The following examples shows how to build parameterized queries in some common web languages.

SELECT STATEMENT IN ASP.NET:

txtUserId = getRequestString("UserId");
sql = "SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE CustomerId = @0";
command = new SqlCommand(sql);
command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@0",txtUserID);
command.ExecuteReader();

INSERT INTO STATEMENT IN ASP.NET:

txtNam = getRequestString("CustomerName");
txtAdd = getRequestString("Address");
txtCit = getRequestString("City");
txtSQL = "INSERT INTO Customers (CustomerName,Address,City) Values(@0,@1,@2)";
command = new SqlCommand(txtSQL);
command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@0",txtNam);
command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@1",txtAdd);
command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@2",txtCit);
command.ExecuteNonQuery();

INSERT INTO STATEMENT IN PHP:

$stmt = $dbh->prepare("INSERT INTO Customers (CustomerName,Address,City) 
VALUES (:nam, :add, :cit)");
$stmt->bindParam(':nam', $txtNam);
$stmt->bindParam(':add', $txtAdd);
$stmt->bindParam(':cit', $txtCit);
$stmt->execute();