Select more tables after FROM statement? - php

this is part of a security audition, so there is no way to "change" the query.
Basically, what I found is a flaw that allows statement manipulation, so basically it goes like:
$query = "DELETE FROM `products` WHERE `products`.`whatever` = $variable";
This is PHP, so as far as I know there is no way to execute multiple queries. Using this SQL Injection, I was able to "clear" this table by running "0 OR 1=1#".
This works just fine, but it doesn't allow me to choose more tables to delete from.
This is, in pseudocode what I want to do:
DELETE FROM `products` WHERE `products`.`whatever` = **0 OR 1=1, FROM `othertable` WHERE `othertable`.`othercolumn` = 0 OR 1=1**
Is this plausible anyhow?
If this isn't reliable, is there any other way I could use this?

You can't have multiple FROM clauses for the same DELETE statement, so you can't go about it exactly how you'd want to. If the MySQL db had 'allow multiple queries per statement' turned on, you could try to terminate the one DELETE query and then tack on another to the end, so that it'd look like this:
DELETE FROM `products` WHERE `products`.`whatever` = **0 OR 1=1; DELETE FROM `othertable` WHERE `othertable`.`othercolumn` = 0 OR 1=1**
But that's about it.

Perhaps I don't fully understand the question, but what I take away is that you're building a SQL command as a string and running that string directly against a MySQL database.
You can separate multiple commands using the command separator (usually ';'), so you could run pretty much any command you want as this comic aptly illustrates.
If your database configuration supports multiple commands (or might in the future if someone changes today's setting), you want to ensure you don't have a command separator as part of the input. See this article for advice on sanitizing your input to prevent this type of attack.

As you stated, multiple queries are not supported by the normal MySQL driver module. From the manual for mysql_query:
mysql_query() sends a unique query
(multiple queries are not supported)
to the currently active database on
the server that's associated with the
specified link_identifier .
Unfortunately for your injection efforts, DELETE syntax only supports multiple table deletes by specifying them in the FROM clause. Your injected variable is part of the WHERE, so the most damage you can do is to the single specified table.
Contrary to popular belief, you can actually run multiple MySQL statements from PHP, you just have to be using a different database driver module such as MySQLi. See MySQLi::multi_query().

Related

A column with implanted PHP functionality

Lets say I have this PHP function:
function strlow($string){
strtolower(trim($string));
}
Now lets say I have a table with 2 columns [id - title] and I want to make all titles that are going to be inserted into the table in lowercase, The usual way is
$title = strlow($title);
$query = "INSERT INTO table (title) VALUES ($title);
Is there for example a way to implant in the column itself in the database the function, So instead of doing the strlow() by the PHP, the Database does it?
If yes, I wish for an example built on mine.
You could update your query to handle this if you really wanted (but I would still rather do this in the application layer) using the MySQL TRIM and LOWER commands:
INSERT INTO table (title) VALUES (TRIM(LOWER(($title)))
The reason I say I would rather do this in the application layer is that if you decide to switch database systems in future, you need to remember to port over all your database formatting rules such as these at that time too which although doesn't seem too bad now, trust me, in the future, you will forget.
In addition to this, if you ever want to add further logic to what you are putting in to the database you will likely find your options more limited in MySQL than you will in your application layer.
Also, please for my sanity look up how to use parametrized queries because you are wide open to SQL injection attacks at the moment. There is a great post here that covers this.
$query = "INSERT INTO table (title) VALUES (LCASE($title));

How people can use this security hole?

I have browser game. There is message send form.
I didn't make real escape string function to the "message_content" variable.
There is any option, that the user could make after the insert of the message, any update ?
I mean that the user could write a sql code in the message_content that can UPDATE values in the sql? Like update users set gold = '9999' where username = 'my_username'
THANKS ALOT....
And that it only a question. Don't worry i already made mysql_real_escape_string...
Please learn about using parametrized queries, preferably with the PDO module, to protect your web app. http://bobby-tables.com/php has examples to get you started.
The mysql_query function doesn't allow the execution of multiple statements at once. So the often mentioned example of Robert'; DROP TABLE Students; -- won’t work.
This also means that the exploitation is restricted to the statement type. So if the injection point is in an INSERT statement, the vulnerability can only be exploited to insert arbitrary values into that specific table.
However, one can still inject arbitrary data from the database into that table. And if the attacker addresses the message to himself, he will be able to read arbitrary data from the database and may also be able to read and write arbitrary files on the server.
If you don't escape the user input the following can happen:
Imagine this query:
SELECT * FROM user WHERE login='$login'
where $loginis the user's input.
Now the user insers the following content in the variable: '; DROP TABLE user; --
The following query will be executed:
SELECT * FROM user WHERE login=''; DROP TABLE user; --'
It's a very generic example, but I hope you get the idea

SQL Injection within a stored procedure?

I've found somewhere in the code where a string isn't being escaped properly. I've been trying to see if it is exploitable (don't worry, I'll end up escaping it or using prepared statements anyway, this is just for a learning experience).
This is using mysqli->query() function;
The Query is generated in PHP like so:
$Query = "CALL some_proc(".$_SomeID.",'".$_UnescapedString."')";
By inputting $_UnescapedString as test'); DROP TABLE SomeTable; -- I got the query:
CALL some_proc(1, 'test'); DROP TABLE SomeTable; -- ')
This query was successfully run but it seems that it didn't run the second query. I tested this by putting invalid SQL in the second query and got no errors. I assume this means mysqli is smart enough to only execute a single query?
Now my question is, can I somehow inject SQL into the stored procedure itself? Here is the procedure:
BEGIN
SELECT COUNT(*) AS SomeCount
FROM DataTable
WHERE DataTable.SomeID = _SomeID
AND DataTable.SomeValue LIKE CONCAT('%',_UnescapedString,'%');
END
I've tried various SQL such as test','%')-- to see if the query would carry on as normal, but it only changes the stored procedure call, i.e:
CALL some_proc(1, 'test', '%')--');
Is there anyway to get a DROP TABLE command into _UnescapedString?
Disclaimer, I use SQL Server and not mySQL, but assuming the behavior with regards to parameters in stored procedures is the same, and also assuming that _UnescapedString is an input parameter, putting DROP TABLE in the parameter would look like this:
SELECT COUNT(*) AS SomeValue
FROM DataTable
WHERE DataTable.SomeID = _SomeID
AND DataTable.SomeValue LIKE '%DROP TABLE%');
With regards to the query:
CALL some_proc(1, 'test'); DROP TABLE SomeTable; -- ')
Maybe the DROP TABLE command did not execute due to the user account under which you are running having insufficient permissions to execute DDL statements?
Restricting the permissions of the user account being used to access the database from the web server is a way to limit the damage that an SQL Injection attack could cause. However, it won't stop them.

Can I use the result of a previous MySQL query in the From section of another MySQL query?

I'm using a PHP webservice where I have performed a simple SELECT query, and stored it
$result = run_query($get_query);
I now need to perform further querying on the data based on different parameters, which I know is possible via MySQL in the form:
SELECT *
FROM (SELECT *
FROM customers
WHERE CompanyName > 'g')
WHERE ContactName < 'g'
I do know that this performs two Select queries on the table. However, what I would like to know is if I can simply use my previously saved query in the FROM section of the second section, such as this, and if my belief that it helps performance by not querying the entire database again is true:
SELECT *
FROM ($result)
WHERE ContactName < 'g'
You can make a temp table to put the initial results and then use it to select the data and in the second query. This will work faster only if your 1-st query is slow.
PHP and SQL are different languages and very different platforms. They often don't even run in the same computer. Your PHP variables won't interact at all with the MySQL server. You use PHP to create a string that happens to contain SQL code but that's all. In the end, the only thing that counts is the SQL code you sent to the server—how you manage to generate it is irrelevant.
Additionally, you can't really say how MySQL will run a query unless you obtain an explain plan:
EXPLAIN EXTENDED
SELECT *
FROM (SELECT *
FROM customers
WHERE CompanyName > 'g')
WHERE ContactName < 'g'
... but I doubt it'll read the table twice for your query. Memory is much faster than disk.
Thanks for the responses, everyone. Turns out what I was looking for was a "query of query", which isn't supported directly by PHP but I found a function over here which provides the functionality: http://www.tom-muck.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=37
That was found from this other SO question: Can php query the results from a previous query?
I still need to do comparisons to determine whether it improves speed.
If I understand your question correctly you want to know whether saving the "from" part of your SQL query in a php variable improves the performance of you querying your SQL server, then the answer is NO. Simply because the variable keeping the value is inserted into the query.
Whether performance is gained in PHP, the answer is most probable yes; but depends on the length of the variable value (and how often you repeat using the variable instead of building a new complete query) whether the performance will be notable.
Why not just get this data in a single query like this?
SELECT *
FROM customers
WHERE CompanyName > 'g'
AND ContactName < 'g'

How does SQL-injection work and how do I protect against it [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 11 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
What is SQL injection?
I see a lot of php code floating around on stackoverflow and (too) little escaping of strings.
Can anyone
Explain what SQL injection is;
Explain what it can do to your server, data and code;
Give an example how to perform an SQL-injection
Give php sample code how to protect against SQL-injection
An SQL injection is a maliciously formed SQL query used to "confuse" an SQL database into giving something it shouldn't. For instance, consider the following query
"SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE `username` = '$name'";
In a normal case, this will work. If we submit 'Jack' to this, it will return all users named Jack. However, if a user enters, say "' OR 1=1", the resulting query would be
"SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE `username` = '' OR 1=1";
Since 1 always equals 1, and the combinating clause is OR, this will return true on every row, which will in turn display EVERY row to the malicious user. Using this technique, someone can view your entire database. Also consider if someone submits something like "'; DROP TABLE users";--, which results in
"SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE `username` = ''; DROP TABLE `users`";--";
Which is two queries, one which will do nothing, the second which will delete the ENTIRE users database, resulting in the loss of your data.
The best method to prevent SQL injections is to use prepared statements. With these, you send a query to the SQL database that says something like
"SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE `username` = '?'";
This lets the database know the format of the query (WHERE username equals some value), so there is no confusion when given a plain text query. Then the database knows to expect one value, and where to put it. Then you pass that value to the database which it can use to search. This is also better as the database can optimize the query for faster searching.
Read up on prepared statements, which will explain this in more detail.
I cannot resist aswell.
SQL Injection is "a code injection technique that exploits a security vulnerability occurring in the database layer of an application". In other words it's SQL code injected in as user input inside a query.
SQL Injections can manipulate data (delete, update, add ecc...) and corrupt or delete tables of the database. I'm not aware of SQL Injections manipulating scripts though.
Let's say in your PHP script you are expecting (as user input) a username and a password from the login form that are later used inside a query such as:
SELECT Id FROM Users WHERE Name = $name AND Password = $password;
The user can insert inside $name and as $password whatever he likes (for example trough an <input>). Let's imagine he adds a name such as "1 OR 1 = 1; --", the query will now look like:
SELECT Id FROM Users WHERE Name = 1 OR 1 = 1; -- AND Password = $password;
and then, after the ; I could add another query or make the script think that the username and the password actually exists.
Notice that -- AND Password = $password; is a SQL comment and will therefore be ignored.
If you are using PHP < 5 then you should look for mysql_real_escape_string() and use it to escape user inputs before embedding it inside a query.
If you are using PHP5+ you should use PDO or the mysqli extension which can prevent this problem via prepared statements.
I cannot resist posting this.
1- Sql Injection is explained better in one cartoon, than most other documents.
2- Mostly it does not do much to the server, but only to the underlying data. Consequence include delete, insert , select records, drop, create tables. (based on permissions etc..)
3- Examples.
4- Sorry I do not know PHP. But as long as you can abstract your DB layer from your View, you should be fine.
There's a lot of information out there (and elsewhere in here) about this subject, so do not take this answer as a complete list by any means and continue to research on your own...
Explain what SQL injection is;
Explain what it can do to your server, data and code;
Give an example how to perform an SQL-injection
Give php sample code how to protect against SQL-injection
SQL injection is where an attacker discovers that an input value supplied to your application is being sent directly to a database and realizes that they can craft that input to be a custom SQL command. It could be something as simple as entering a special character (such as %) into a text field and receiving a strange response.
It can do anything your database allows that command to do. For example, if your web application has DB owner permissions for the application's database then an attack can potentially drop tables or even drop the whole database. Or, with even normal application permissions, the attack can over-write data or read sensitive data (such as plain text passwords if you have those).
For example, if an application has a text field where you enter a username. If that field is open to SQL injection, an attacker can enter something like: MyName';DROP TABLE Users;-- In this example, the attack manually finishes the query with the closing single quote and semi-colon, then adds another query, then comments out anything afterward. If not protected against this, the database may run both queries.
This one I don't know updated enough information, but there's lots out there :)

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