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

Operating the lab

Now that the components of the lab are fully set up, we are ready to make it work.

Setting up the OWASP BWA lab

Here are the steps we suggest to set up the OWASP BWA part of the lab:

  1. First, run the OWASP BWA VM from VirtualBox. Once it has started, it should display the screen shown in Figure 3.21. By now, the full list of web applications can be accessed at the address shown on the screen on your computer.
  2. To use Kali Linux, run your Kali VM from VirtualBox. Keep in mind that as long as OWASP BWA is running with the current settings, it can also access the web applications available from BWA. This is illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 3.29 – The OWASP BWA selection hub as seen from the Kali VM

This way, any emulated device on your computer can connect to the OWASP BWA server, thus making it possible to test a various range of attacks. Obviously, manual attacks can also be carried out from the comfort...