Question

SQL Injection Attack

Asked by: pbguy

Please tell me how to exploit this query with a SQL injection attack!

I've been reading about such attacks and I want to lock down my code a bit better.  But, for some reason I can't get my Coldfusion program to bite on the good old

' or '1'='1' --

as the password when I feed it in through a URL or the HTML form.  The query it calls is as follows:

<CFQUERY NAME="checklogin" DATASOURCE="..." USERNAME="..."  PASSWORD="...">

      SELECT       COUNT(*) AS usrcount
      FROM    accounts            
      WHERE      RTRIM( username )             = '#username#'       AND
                  RTRIM( pass )            = '#password#'
      GROUP BY username
</CFQUERY>

Intuitively this query should be hackable, am I mistaken?  Can anyone give me a SQLInjection hack that will break this SQL statement (it shouldn't be too hard to do?)

Also, any suggestions to sure-up my code would also be greatly appreciated (but mainly I want a hack example that works so I can fix my other sins ...)

Using MS SQL Server.  Please, nothing that will do damage (the apps are still my babies!)

Thanks for your input and comments!


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Asked On
2005-02-10 at 13:23:31ID21310297
Tags

sql

,

injection

,

coldfusion

Topic

ColdFusion Application Server

Participating Experts
2
Points
175
Comments
11

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Answers

 

by: Tacobell777Posted on 2005-02-10 at 13:56:42ID: 13280645

<CFQUERY NAME="checklogin" DATASOURCE="..." USERNAME="..."  PASSWORD="...">

     SELECT      COUNT(*) AS usrcount
     FROM    accounts          
     WHERE     RTRIM( username )           = <cfqueryparam value="#username#" cfsqltype="CF_SQL_VARCHAR" />      AND
               RTRIM( pass )          = <cfqueryparam value="#password#" cfsqltype="CF_SQL_VARCHAR" />
     GROUP BY username
</CFQUERY>


The above is how you overcome SQL injection.

Or use Stored Procedures.

Another good thing to do is actually check the returned value from the SELECT instead of checking for count
(By the way, not sure what your group by is doing in the above statement?)
DECLARE @username VARCHAR(20)
DECLARE @password VARCHAR(20)

     SELECT     @username = username, @password = password
     FROM    accounts          
     WHERE     RTRIM( username )           = <cfqueryparam value="#username#" cfsqltype="CF_SQL_VARCHAR" />      AND
               RTRIM( pass )          = <cfqueryparam value="#password#" cfsqltype="CF_SQL_VARCHAR" />

IF @username = '#username#' AND @password = '#password#'
BEGIN
   SELECT 1 AS isValid
END
ELSE
BEGIN
   SELECT 0 AS isValid
END

I am not going to give a sample on how to exploit cf, but do a search in google and you will find enough examples - hint: it's easier when you use an integer in your example.

 

by: pbguyPosted on 2005-02-10 at 14:53:30ID: 13281206

Hi Taco,

Thanks for the fixes, actually I had already found the <cfqueryparam> tag but the SP is a great option too.  If I utilize the CFQUERYPARAM tag am I completely safe?  Boy o boy do I have some search/replaces to do!

Also, do these exploits apply just to SELECTS or for INSERTS/UPDATES/DELETES/etc?

Increased pts for additional twists...

Really curious about the exploit that will work on my query though, I've found a bunch in Google but nothing seems to effect this statement.  I would like to test it out and see what effect it has - I can't seem to punch through and it seems like it should be an easy task.  If you have concerns, I'll assure you that this seriously is for nothing more than just testing my stuff!

Thanks for any additional ideas!

 

by: Tacobell777Posted on 2005-02-10 at 15:22:21ID: 13281403

yes you should be safe from SQL Injection when using cfqueryparam

The exploits can be performed on any SQL statement

I think on your example above you would only be vulnerable if you used preserveSingleQuotes() not 100% sure anymore, I investigated a long time ago, but since then kept using cfqueryparam or storedprocedures and data input filtering, so I am not worrying about it anymore ;-)

Data input filtering is what I did not mention above, always use regular epxressions to make sure no invalid data is submitted...

 

by: PluckaPosted on 2005-02-10 at 18:15:05ID: 13282352

Hi pbguy,

I don't believe your query is prone to atack anyway. One that is is something that ends in a url variable. ie:

select  *
from    Employee
where   EmployeeId = #url.EmployeeId#

Then they could attack in the url, by

http://www.site.com/page.cfm?EmployeeId=10;delete * from Employee

thus the translated query would look like.

select  *
from    Employee
where   EmployeeId = 10;delete * from Employee

Regards
Plucka

 

by: pbguyPosted on 2005-02-10 at 19:26:48ID: 13282820

Thanks Pluck.  Curious - can you run 2 queries inside a single CFQUERY tag?  I need to try and see, thought you were limited to 1.

I'll try some of these samples out tomorrow, it's a matter of principle now to see something work in CF. Taco - I agree it should be exploitable!  I'll try preservesinglequotes too.




 

by: Tacobell777Posted on 2005-02-10 at 20:20:09ID: 13283035

Yes you can run multiple queries within one cfquery, but only return one result

 

by: PluckaPosted on 2005-02-10 at 20:31:06ID: 13283076

Taco is right, and the result returned is the result of the last query.

Most often used when returning identitie's

ie:

<cfquery name="insert">
    insert into Employee
    (Name, EmailAddress)
values ('#Form.Name#', '#Form.EmailAddress#');
select @@identity as RecordID
</cfquery>

This second query would return the query insert.recordid which would be the identity of the insert.

Other than that i haven't had any useful use for it.

 

by: Tacobell777Posted on 2005-02-10 at 20:33:29ID: 13283087

Not to be picky or anything, but
@@identity actually returns the globally last identity

<cfquery name="insert">
    insert into Employee
    (Name, EmailAddress)
values ('#Form.Name#', '#Form.EmailAddress#');
select scope_identity() as RecordID
</cfquery>

returns the last insert identity for this insert

 

by: PluckaPosted on 2005-02-10 at 21:03:28ID: 13283213

Really,

We have used this extensivelly and never had a problem, have you ever tested it? I know it's one of those things that's almost impossible to test.

I've also seen @@identity used extenisvly in other applications stored procedures.

I'll have to research this further.

Regards
Plucka.

 

by: Tacobell777Posted on 2005-02-10 at 23:45:27ID: 13283693

look it up in the SQL online books

 

by: pbguyPosted on 2005-02-24 at 07:34:58ID: 13393471

Plucka - as for the identity var it would only effect you if you were pounding the table with inserts, but to be safe Taco is right.

Thanks for the info guys, have been frantically going back over my code and adding the CFQUERYPARAM.  Oh boy, let me tell you about FUN!!!

Anyway, haven't had a chance to test it but someday I'll get a chance, more important to secure my DB first :)

Splitting the points, thanks guys!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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