Book Image

SQL Injection Strategies

By : Ettore Galluccio, Edoardo Caselli, Gabriele Lombari
Book Image

SQL Injection Strategies

By: Ettore Galluccio, Edoardo Caselli, Gabriele Lombari

Overview of this book

SQL injection (SQLi) is probably the most infamous attack that can be unleashed against applications on the internet. SQL Injection Strategies is an end-to-end guide for beginners looking to learn how to perform SQL injection and test the security of web applications, websites, or databases, using both manual and automated techniques. The book serves as both a theoretical and practical guide to take you through the important aspects of SQL injection, both from an attack and a defense perspective. You’ll start with a thorough introduction to SQL injection and its impact on websites and systems. Later, the book features steps to configure a virtual environment, so you can try SQL injection techniques safely on your own computer. These tests can be performed not only on web applications but also on web services and mobile applications that can be used for managing IoT environments. Tools such as sqlmap and others are then covered, helping you understand how to use them effectively to perform SQL injection attacks. By the end of this book, you will be well-versed with SQL injection, from both the attack and defense perspective.
Table of Contents (11 chapters)
1
Section 1: (No)SQL Injection in Theory
4
Section 2: SQL Injection in Practice

Common SQL injection commands and manipulation

SQL injection can be used in many different ways for many different purposes, due to the wide range of possible actions that can be performed through SQL. The most trivial use is trying to obtain otherwise inaccessible information, querying the database in ways that are not usually envisioned by the regular flow of the application logic. Other uses involve the bypass of authentication gates within applications, thus effectively escalating privileges, or alternatively gaining more control on the affected system in the case of stored credentials. Other common attacks include blind SQL injection: in most cases, the database console or output is not shown to an attacker, as the operations happen behind the so-called frontend; however, it is possible for an attacker to identify and exploit SQL injection by observing the application behavior. We will now see some examples of notorious attack techniques.

Information gathering and schema extraction...