get id from url security - php

I'm creating a basic blog and I'm using the following code.
It's collecting the id (always a number) from the url and before I use, I wondered if anyone could check the security of the code and let me know if its ok?
I really don't want any injections, etc, and I want to keep it as much secured as possible.
<?php
if(is_numeric($_GET['id']) && $_GET['id'] > 0){
include("connectionfile.php");
$ia = intval($_GET['id']);
$ib = mysql_real_escape_string($ia);
$ic = strip_tags($ib);
$qProfile = "SELECT * FROM #### WHERE id='$ic' ";
$rsProfile = mysql_query($qProfile);
$row = mysql_fetch_array($rsProfile);
extract($row);
$title = trim($title);
$post = trim($post);
$date = trim($date);
mysql_close();
}else{
echo 'hack error here';
}
?>

$ia = intval($_GET['id']);
$ib = mysql_real_escape_string($ia);
$ic = strip_tags($ib);
strip_tags is useless, because it is only relevant in an HTML context. Any one of the other two methods would be sufficient to prevent SQL injection. Generally, just use the appropriate escaping mechanism for the language you're dealing with. In this case you're dealing with SQL, so mysql_real_escape_string alone is fine. See The Great Escapism (Or: What You Need To Know To Work With Text Within Text) for a step-by-step approach to escaping.
Better yet, learn PDO with prepared statements instead of the deprecated mysql_ functions, which solves the issue of SQL injection much better.

Don't use mysql_ functions. They are deprecated. Use mysqli or
PDO.
Use parameterized queries
Don't use "extract" as it pollutes the local scope. There are rare cases where it's safe, usually internal to an ORM, where it's
within the object. This is dangerous otherwise as all forms of
nasty variable names could be introduced, especially with successful
SQL injection.
Do exception handling so that database errors do not break the page entirely, and in the case of a bad query somehow forced via SQL Injection, nothing is displayed to indicate that the query was broken.
Even after you do all the above, still make sure you use htmlentities() or otherwise validate the data is what you expect before you display.

This code is a mess ;-)
if statement can be simplified "if (($id = (int)$_GET['id']) > 0) {"
if you acknowledge my 1. point, then $ia, $ib and $ic can be deleted
don't trim() database data! data should be trimed before INSERT into database.
read what #FilmJ has answered you

Related

how to protect from sql injection when using php?id=

Hello I need help finding a way to protect from sql injection on my current project, Im making bash tutorial site but ive run into a problem. I put most my content in database and depending on what link the user clicks it will pull different data onto the page.
This is how im doing it
apt-get <br>
And on bash_cmds.php
<?php
require_once("connections/connect.php");
$dbcon = new connection();
$bash = $_REQUEST['id'];
$query2 = "SELECT * FROM bash_cmds WHERE id = $bash ";
$results = $dbcon->dbconnect()->query($query2);
if($results){
while($row = $results->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)){
$bash_cmd = $row['bash_command'];
$how = $row['how_to'];
}
} else { return false; }
?>
<?php echo $bash_cmd ?>
<br />
<table>
<tr><td><?php echo $how ?> </td></tr>
</table>
However this leaves me vulnerable to sql injection, I ran sqlmap and was able to pull all databases and tables. Can someone please help I would appreciate it a lot the infomation would be invaluable.
There are a couple of ways to do this. I believe the best way is to use some database abstraction layer (there's a good one built into PHP called PDO) and use its prepared statements API. You can read more about PDO here, and you can see the particular function which binds a value to a ? placeholder here.
Alternatively, you could use the mysqli_real_escape_string API function, which should escape any SQL inside your $bash variable.
Of course, in this particular case, simply ensuring the ID is an integer with (int) or intval() would be good enough, but the danger of using this approach in general is that it's easy to forget to do this one time, which is all it takes for your application to be vulnerable. If you use something like PDO, it's more "safe by default," one might say - it's more difficult to accidentally write vulnerable code.
You could bind the values to a prepared statement.
But for something simple as a numeric variable a cast to an integer would be good enough:
$bash = (int) $_REQUEST['id'];
Using this, only a number would get stored into $bash. Even if someone enters ?id=--%20DROP%20TABLE%20xy;, as this will get casted to 1;
I've found one of the easiest ways to protect against injection is to use prepared statements.
You can do this in PHP via PDO, as CmdrMoozy suggested.
Prepared statements are more secure because the placeholders ? can only represent values, and not variables (ie: will never be interpreted as a table name, server variable, column name, etc. It {currently} can't even represent a list of values). This immediately makes any modification to the logic of the query immutable, leaving only possible unwanted values as injection possibilities (looking for an id of 'notanid'), which in most cases isn't a concern (they'd just get a blank/wrong/error page, their fault for trying to hack your site).
Addendum:
These restrictions are what is in place when the prepared statements are done on the server. When prepared statements are simulated by a library instead of actually being server side the same may not be true, but often many of these are emulated.

PDO and Escaping Input: Is this the safest way?

I wanting to check myself before I go live. I read so many different things on the internet but I want to know if this will absolutely protect my code for SQL Injection. If not, what do I need to add or take away?
$idtoapprove = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['idtoapprove']);
$getcity = $conn->prepare('SELECT city, state FROM needs WHERE ID=:idtoapprove');
$getcity->bindParam(':idtoapprove', $idtoapprove);
$getcity->execute();
$cityrow = $getcity->fetch();
$needcity = $cityrow['city'];
$needstate = $cityrow['state'];
echo "$needcity, $needstate";
No need for mysql_real_escape_string here, actually, it's flat-out wrong (it's from a different, deprecated database library) and can damage your data. (Also, it would be ineffective here anyway - mysql_real_escape_string() is for escaping strings, it is useless for integers.)
The PDO prepared statement is enough.

What is the use of preg_match('/(benchmark|sleep)/i', $id)

I today i start to read different articles about SQLi and DoS/DdoS to know how to protect my site and i found this thing :
Link: link to the article
// DB connection
// $id = (int)$_GET['id'];
$id = $_GET['id'];
$result = mysql_query("SELECT id,name,pass FROM users WHERE id = $id")
or die("Error");
if($data = mysql_fetch_array($result))
$_SESSION['name'] = $data['name'];
if(preg_match('/(benchmark|sleep)/i', $id))
exit('attack'); // no timing
I want to know the use of this.Also after this the guy show how to bypass it and i want to know if PDO is secury?
if(preg_match('/(benchmark|sleep)/i', $id)) checks if the $id matches the strings benchmark or sleep (the i stands for case-insensitive).
In the context it's presented I'd say this makes no sense what so ever though... I'd rather do this, and be done with it:
$id = (int) $_GET['id'];
$result = mysql_query('SELECT id,name,pass FROM users WHERE id = '.$id);
Notice I cast the id to an int, so if it's anything else it should just end up being 0, which most likely doesn't match anything since id columns usually starts on 1 (from my experience anyways).
I want to know the use of this
That's quite silly and apparently useless attempt to detect a possible SQL injection which is supposed to run a resource-consuming query.
Also after this the guy show how to bypass it
No wonder.
Once you have a code open to injection, thaere are thousands methods to run it.
The only your concern should be injection in general.
Once you protected - no ddos injection would be possible.
i want to know if PDO is secury?
First, it is not PDO secure, but strict and constant use of prepared statements considered secure.
Second, nope, prepared statements helps only half the problem

PHP security, intval and htmlspecialchars

<?php
$id = intval($_GET['id']);
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT username FROM users WHERE id = $id");
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($sql);
$user = htmlspecialchars($row['username']);
?>
<h1>User:<?php echo $user ?></h1>
Can you see any threats in the above code? Do I have to use htmlspecialchars on everything I output? And should i use is_numeric or intval to check so that the get is numeric?
I'm just building a minimal site. I'm just wondering if the above code is vulnerable to sql injection, xss?
Generally speaking mysql_real_escape_string() is preferred but since it's a number, intval() is OK. So yes, it looks OK from a security perspective.
One thing though, on many platforms, ints are limited to 32 bits so if you want to deal in numbers larger than ~2.1 billion then it won't work. Well, it won't work how you expect anyway.
These sorts of security precautions apply to any form of user input including cookies (something many people forget).
I would strongly recommend using PDO and prepared statements. While your statement above looks safe, you're going to have problems as soon as you do more complex queries.
Instead of puzzling over whether a particular query is safe, learn about prepared statements and you won't have to worry. Here is your example, re-written with PDO:
# Make a database connection
$db = new PDO('mysql:dbname=your_db;host=your_db_server', 'username',
'password');
# The placeholder (:id) will be replaced with the actual value
$sql = 'SELECT username FROM users WHERE id=:id';
# Prepare the statement
$stmt = $db->prepare($sql);
# Now replace the placeholder (:id) with the actual value. This
# is called "binding" the value. Note that you don't have to
# convert it or escape it when you do it this way.
$stmt->bindValue(':id', $id);
# Run the query
$stmt->execute();
# Get the results
$row = $stmt->fetch();
# Clean up
$stmt->closeCursor();
# Do your stuff
$user = htmlspecialchars($row['username']);
I've added a lot of comments; it's not as much code as it looks like. When you use bindValue, you never have to worry about SQL injection.
Well,
You are casting the received id to an int ; so no possible SQL injection here.
And the rest of the DB query is "hard-coded", so no problem there either.
If id was a string in DB, you'd have to use mysql_real_escape_string, but for an integer, intval is the right tool :-)
About the output, you are escaping data too (and, as you are outputting HTML, htmlspecialchars is OK) ; so no HTML/JS injection.
So, this short portion of code looks OK to me :-)
As a sidenote, if you are starting developping a new website, it is the moment or never to take a look at either mysqli (instead of mysql), and/or PDO ;-)
It would allow you to use functionnalities provided by recent versions of MySQL, like prepared statements, for instance -- which are a good way to protect yourself from SQL injection !

PHP Cookie Security Question

I have the following code that is presenting a 'word-of-the-day',
As I am relatively new to php coding, I wanted to make sure that there weren't any
security issues for how I am selecting from my database from the cookie value. Thanks.
if ($word_of_the_day) {
$wotd = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT term,definition FROM glossary WHERE term = '{$word_of_the_day}'");
foreach ($wotd as $term) { }
}
elseif ($_COOKIE['WOTD']) {
$word_of_the_day = htmlspecialchars(addslashes($_COOKIE['WOTD']));
$wotd = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT term,definition FROM glossary WHERE term = '{$word_of_the_day}'");
foreach ($wotd as $term) { }
}
else {
$wotd = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT term,definition FROM glossary ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1");
foreach ($wotd as $term) {
setcookie("WOTD", $term->term, time()+86400);
}
}
Well if $word_for_the_day comes from user input, there's your first problem. Do this before you use it:
$word_for_the_day = mysql_real_escape_string($word_for_the_day);
Your cookie actually looks OK. The htmlspecialchars() and addslashes() calls, in the context you're using them, don't appear vulnerable to SQL injection or XSS attacks.
You should check out mysql_real_escape_string: "Escapes special characters in a string for use in a SQL statement". You don't have to do the stuff that you're doing with htmlspecialchars and addslashes manually. Are you familiar with SQL injection security risks? If the variable that you're including in the SELECT statement, $word_of_the_day, comes from the user, then you have a potential SQL injection problem.
addslashes is extremely weak. First thing, run everything you query from the db through mysql_escape_string to prevent sql injection. That's just the basics.
if($word_of_the_day){
$word_of_the_day = mysql_escape_string($word_of_the_day);
$wotd = $wpdb->get_results ("SELECT term,definition FROM glossary WHERE term = '{$word_of_the_day}'");
Also, cookies in general aren't very secure no matter how secure code you write. For a much more secure solution, I recommend you use PHP sessions ($_SESSION). You can store variables in this superglobal variable and it will stay there between page loads.
http://www.php.net/manual/en/session.examples.basic.php
After that, you may want to protect against session hijacking or poisoning if you're really going for it
Another option you could consider would be to store the id of the word, instead of the word itself in the cookie. That way, it can only ever be an integer. Of course, using the word is fine too, as long as you mysql_real_escape_string it first, I just wanted to offer another option.
One of the safest ways is to use the PDO MySQL functions, which implements parameters:
$db = new PDO('mysql:host=hostname;dbname=defaultDbName', 'username', 'password');
$stmt = $db->prepare('SELECT term,definition FROM glossary WHERE term = :wotd');
if ($stmt) {
if ($stmt->execute(array(':wotd' => $word_of_the_day))) { //This is safe for any input method
$info = $stmt->fetchAll();
foreach($info as $row) {
//Whatever
}
}
}
The PDO drivers does the correct escaping / quoting according to the data type in the table.
Where does $word_of_the_day come from? If it comes from user input, you are open to SQL injection.

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