Organizations use web applications with dynamic databases for providing better and various services to their customers. The services could be online banking which holding very sensitive data, universities that uses countless students’ results, and different other government web applications. There are many attacks that cause a threat to database security such as Cross-Site Scripting Attack (XSS), phishing, Denial of Service (DoS), and SQL injection attack.
SQL injection attack is the major concern of web applications’ developers because SQL injection attacks threaten the confidentiality, integrity, functionality, and availability of back-end databases of any web applications. Again, SQL Injection Attacks are the most effective method for stealing the data from the backend database, by the help of these attacks hackers can get access to the database and steal sensitive information. Finally, SQL Injection Attacks usually ranked as the first one in the list of top 10 vulnerabilities in the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP).
SQL stands for Structured Query Language. SQL is the most common high-level language used in various relational Database Management Systems (DBMS) for control and builds the desired query commands. SQL is used for accessing database servers, including MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server. Web programming languages such as Java, ASP.NET, and PHP provide various methods for constructing and executing SQL statements. SQL language is a way of communication between users and the database in order to allow the user to interact with a database for managing data held in a relational database management system. SQL statements can modify the structure of databases (using Data Definition Language statements or 'DDL') and manipulate the contents of databases (using Data Manipulation Language statements, or 'DML'). Web applications could be a target of SQL Injection Attack when:
SQL Injection can be classified into three types –
Based on Attack Mindset SQL Injection Attack can be analyzed in the following way:
Steps | Implementation |
---|---|
Identifying vulnerable parameter | To discover which parameters and input fields are vulnerable to SQLi Attack |
Extracting data | To extract data from the database |
Adding or modifying data | To add or change information in a database |
Bypassing authentication | To bypass database and application authentication mechanisms |
Executing remote commands | To execute arbitrary commands on the database including stored procedure or functions |
Performing privilege escalation | To escalate the privileges by implementation errors or logical flaws in the database |
Above mentioned methods describe the steps following which an attacker can gain access to the particular web server on which the SQLi attack is being performed. If a successful SQLi attack is performed then all the above-mentioned steps can be performed easily with several tools and techniques.
SQL injection attack can be classified based on input mechanisms:
There are varieties of SQL injection mechanisms. Based on the mechanism attacks hackers can try to achieve the purpose of performing a successful SQL Injection.
Tools Used for Performing SQL Injection Attacks:
Numerous tools are there but these two are popular ones.
The main cause of almost every SQL injection Attack is invalid input checking. Here given some method which can be prioritized to defend SQL Injection:
But, this is not the end. We have just understood one of the many factors that can attack our cyber security and cyber data. So, we need to be alert and enough educated if possible as well to ensure our network security. Indian School of Ethical Hacking has been providing cyber security, ethical hacking, certified network defender, certified penetration testing professional etc diploma and globally acclaimed certification courses on cyber security in India.
Let’s get all updates regarding cyber security, cyber frauds from Indian School of Ethical Hacking (ISOEH), Kolkata-based leading cyber security institute.
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