© 2010 Quest Software, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Understanding and Preventing SQL Injection Attacks Kevin Kline, Technical Strategy Manager Blog at

2 Your Speaker: Kevin Kline My first bookFounding PASSMVP Status

3 Agenda What is SQL Injection? An Attacker’s Approach SQL Injection Techniques Preventing SQL Injection Security Best Practices & Tips Useful Links and Resources

4 Context and Background

5 What is SQL Injection? SQL injection occurs when a malicious user controls the criteria of SQL statements and enters values that alter the original intention of the SQL statement

6 Who is Vulnerable? All SQL database platforms are susceptible Bypasses firewall protections Applications that build and send SQL strings are vulnerable –Coding techniques can be exploited –SQL statement itself is hacked –Formatting vulnerabilities

7 Like This… Courtesy of

8 Or This Webcode… string cmdStr order_id, order_date, qty FROM Production.Orders WHERE customer_name LIKE '%" + SearchText.Text + "%'"; using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(connStr)) using (SqlDataAdapter sda = new SqlDataAdapter(cmdStr, conn)) { DataTable dtOrders = new DataTable(); sda.Fill(dtOrders); return dtOrders.DefaultView; }

9 9 Injected Values Can Range from Bad… The “Good” search text: 'Hanso Foundation' The “Curious” search text: 'Widmore Industries' or 1=1 -- ‘ The “Exploratory” search text: …ZZZ' UNION SELECT COLUMN_NAME, DATA_TYPE, TABLE_SCHEMA FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'Address' --

10 …To Worse The Ugly search text: …ZZZ'; DROP TABLE customer_credit_card -- The REALLY UGLY search text: …ZZZ'; xp_cmdshell(‘FTP …’)

11 Attack Methodology ReconnaissanceScan for Vulnerabilities / AccessGain AccessEscalate PrivilegesMaintain AccessCover Tracks

12 Attackers… …understand the concept of ‘surface area’ …use error messages to learn about the structure of the underlying SQL statements and database …exploit SQL formatting characters (single quotes, comment notation (--), semi-colons, etc)

13 Then Attackers… …manipulate the SQL statements to learn about the structure of the database and data …execute SQL statements at will …use built-in trap doors inside of the DBMS to go to the next level –Upload their own files, even replacing your own –Examine the rest of your infrastructure –Download data –Launch malware and bots

14 SQL Injection Techniques Probing databases Bypassing authorization Executing multiple SQL statements Calling built-in stored procedures Exiting to the OS for command-line access Inserting code to be used by the web app

15 Error Type: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server (0x80040E14) Unclosed quotation mark before the character string ′ having 1 = 1--′. /Project1/Demo.asp, line 14 Probing Databases Web apps usually return connectivity error information – unless you trap the errors! Hackers can use this information and continually modify parameters to discover: –Table names, column names, data types, row values

16 Bypassing Authorization Good Guy, passes these values - UserID: administrator Password: GoodOne SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ‘administrator’ AND password = ‘GoodOne’; Bad Guy, passes this value - UserID: ‘ OR 1=1 Password -- SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ‘’ OR 1=1 – and password =

17 INSERT Statement Injections Good Guy INSERT INTO Authors (auName, Address) VALUES (‘Julian Isla’, Bad Guy INSER INTO Authors (auName, Address) VALUES (‘SELECT TOP 1 name FROM sys.sys_logins’, EXEC xp_regread HKEY… ; Very Bad Guy, uses scripting and text/xml fields

18 Blind SQL Injection Good apps trap default errors and show their own. Hackers flank this with: –Normal Blind: Get response data from error codes, severity levels, and HTTP status codes –Totally Blind: Gather data through IF…THEN testing, response times, logging, and system functions.

19 Blind Example URL query string: Decoded: NVARCHAR(4000); AS NVARCHAR(4000)); SELECT CAST('this could be some bad code' as varbinary(256)) SELECT CAST (0x F756C F6D F 6465 as varchar(256))

20 Blind Example Final SQL code being executed (hex value decoded): varchar(255) DECLARE Table_Cursor CURSOR FOR select a.name,b.name from sysobjects a,syscolumns b where a.id=b.id and a.xtype='u' and (b.xtype=99 or b.xtype=35 or b.xtype=231 or b.xtype=167) OPEN Table_Cursor FETCH NEXT FROM Table_Cursor INTO BEGIN exec('update set ']))+'' ''') FETCH NEXT FROM Table_Cursor INTO END CLOSE Table_Cursor DEALLOCATE Table_Cursor

21 SQL Injection as an Attack Vector Attackers have chosen not to go after data Targets have been legitimate web sites Plant links and redirects to malware sites Use of a blended attack (browser vulnerability) to infect the client computer Take control of client computers

22 Preventing SQL Injection Never let an app connect as sysadmin –Least privilege principle Building secure SQL statements and apps: –Input validation: check for valid input Don’t check for bad input, you will always miss a case –Use stored procedure to hide application logic – no default error messages; no direct access to tables –Use parameterized input, not string concatenation –Multi layered input checking: application, stored procedure, database schema Apply the latest security patches!

23 Best Practices, Service Accounts SQL Server may use the local system account. Set up a specific Windows login (not Admin!) with appropriate privileges for use by the MSSQLServer system service. Add a separate Windows login (not Admin!) for SQLServerAgent system service.

24 Best Practices, Security Settings Enable ‘Non-sysadmin job step proxy account’ on SQL Server Agent. Set security Audit Level at least to ‘Failure’. Monitor it! Make sure data and log files are on NTFS with proper ACLs applied. Restrict system stored proc’s and XP’s to sysadmins- only Remove guest from all but master and tempdb Disable anything unneeded and unused! (e.g. SQL Browser service, unneeded network protocols) Use Windows Authentication where feasible..

25 Best Practices, Security Checks Check for null and bad passwords frequently Check for non-SA permissions on all system SPs and XPs Monitor failed login attempts Three free scanner utils (HP Scrawlr, URLScan, and Microsoft Source Code Analyzer for SQL Injection ( html?Ad=1) html?Ad=1 Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) is a great tool as well, available at us/library/bb aspxhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en- us/library/bb aspx Tip: Get Quest Discovery Wizard for free!

26 Best Practices, Security Practices Strong SA password –at least 6 digits long with at least 2 numbers –Add mixed case and symbols for more strength Use roles for provisioning, not users –More work, user must be assigned to a login and role –Easy to forget when user leaves Never hardcode passwords Never write apps for use by the SA account Change passwords frequently

27 Best Practices, Security for Developers Do Not Trust User Input Data Validation –Black list vs White list Run With Least Privilege Defense in Depth Fail Intelligently Test Security Remove unused stored procedures, views, and UDFs

28 Best Practices, Security for Developers (cont’d) Use Parameterized Queries or Stored Procedures –Do not use string concatenations to build SQL queries Use Views and Stored Procedures Demand security savvy third-party applications!

29 Resources – my favorite for broad security and tools on SQL Serverhttp:// Microsoft SQL Injection white paper at How-to: Prevent SQL Injection on ASP.Net SQL Injection via CAST: cast.html cast.html SQL Injection Cheat Sheet:

30 Quest Software Swag for SQL Server Free posters, guides, and other goodies. Free DVD Training: March 2010 July 2010

31 Quest Software Resources for SQL Server SQLServerPedia – SQL Server knowledge base, straight from the experts. SQL Server Community – Online discussion forums, customization library, and beta programs. SQL Server Backstage – All things SQL Server at Quest including our Pain of the Week Webcasts.

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