How can I prevent SQL injection in PHP?

If user input is inserted without modification into an SQL query, then the application becomes vulnerable to SQL injection, like in the following example:

$unsafe_variable = $_POST['user_input']; 
mysql_query(“INSERT INTO table (column) VALUES (‘$unsafe_variable’)”);

That’s because the user can input something like value’); DROP TABLE table;–, and the query becomes:

INSERT INTO table (column) VALUES(‘value’); DROP TABLE table;–')

What can be done to prevent this from happening?

#php #sql

Use prepared statements and parameterized queries. These are SQL statements that are sent to and parsed by the database server separately from any parameters. This way it is impossible for an attacker to inject malicious SQL.

You basically have two options to achieve this:

Using PDO (for any supported database driver):

$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM employees WHERE name = :name');

$stmt->execute(array('name' => $name));

foreach ($stmt as $row) {
    // do something with $row
}

Using PDO (for any supported database driver):

$stmt = $dbConnection->prepare('SELECT * FROM employees WHERE name = ?');
$stmt->bind_param('s', $name); // 's' specifies the variable type => 'string'

$stmt->execute();

$result = $stmt->get_result();
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    // do something with $row
}

If you’re connecting to a database other than MySQL, there is a driver-specific second option that you can refer to (e.g. pg_prepare() and pg_execute() for PostgreSQL). PDO is the universal option.

Correctly setting up the connection

Note that when using PDO to access a MySQL database real prepared statements are not used by default. To fix this you have to disable the emulation of prepared statements. An example of creating a connection using PDO is:

$dbConnection = new PDO('mysql:dbname=dbtest;host=127.0.0.1;charset=utf8', 'user', 'pass');

$dbConnection->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES, false);
$dbConnection->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);

In the above example the error mode isn’t strictly necessary, but it is advised to add it. This way the script will not stop with a Fatal Error when something goes wrong. And it gives the developer the chance to catch any error(s) which are thrown as PDOExceptions.

What is mandatory, however, is the first setAttribute() line, which tells PDO to disable emulated prepared statements and use real prepared statements. This makes sure the statement and the values aren’t parsed by PHP before sending it to the MySQL server (giving a possible attacker no chance to inject malicious SQL).

Although you can set the charset in the options of the constructor, it’s important to note that ‘older’ versions of PHP (< 5.3.6) silently ignored the charset parameter in the DSN.

Explanation

What happens is that the SQL statement you pass to prepare is parsed and compiled by the database server. By specifying parameters (either a ? or a named parameter like :name in the example above) you tell the database engine where you want to filter on. Then when you call execute, the prepared statement is combined with the parameter values you specify.

The important thing here is that the parameter values are combined with the compiled statement, not an SQL string. SQL injection works by tricking the script into including malicious strings when it creates SQL to send to the database. So by sending the actual SQL separately from the parameters, you limit the risk of ending up with something you didn’t intend. Any parameters you send when using a prepared statement will just be treated as strings (although the database engine may do some optimization so parameters may end up as numbers too, of course). In the example above, if the $name variable contains 'Sarah'; DELETE FROM employees the result would simply be a search for the string "'Sarah'; DELETE FROM employees", and you will not end up with an empty table.

Another benefit of using prepared statements is that if you execute the same statement many times in the same session it will only be parsed and compiled once, giving you some speed gains.

Oh, and since you asked about how to do it for an insert, here’s an example (using PDO):

$preparedStatement = $db->prepare('INSERT INTO table (column) VALUES (:column)');

$preparedStatement->execute(array('column' => $unsafeValue));

Can prepared statements be used for dynamic queries?

While you can still use prepared statements for the query parameters, the structure of the dynamic query itself cannot be parametrized and certain query features cannot be parametrized.

For these specific scenarios, the best thing to do is use a whitelist filter that restricts the possible values.

// Value whitelist
// $dir can only be 'DESC' otherwise it will be 'ASC'
if (empty($dir) || $dir !== 'DESC') {
   $dir = 'ASC';
}

Cayla Erdman

1594369800

Introduction to Structured Query Language SQL pdf

SQL stands for Structured Query Language. SQL is a scripting language expected to store, control, and inquiry information put away in social databases. The main manifestation of SQL showed up in 1974, when a gathering in IBM built up the principal model of a social database. The primary business social database was discharged by Relational Software later turning out to be Oracle.

Models for SQL exist. In any case, the SQL that can be utilized on every last one of the major RDBMS today is in various flavors. This is because of two reasons:

1. The SQL order standard is genuinely intricate, and it isn’t handy to actualize the whole standard.

2. Every database seller needs an approach to separate its item from others.

Right now, contrasts are noted where fitting.

#programming books #beginning sql pdf #commands sql #download free sql full book pdf #introduction to sql pdf #introduction to sql ppt #introduction to sql #practical sql pdf #sql commands pdf with examples free download #sql commands #sql free bool download #sql guide #sql language #sql pdf #sql ppt #sql programming language #sql tutorial for beginners #sql tutorial pdf #sql #structured query language pdf #structured query language ppt #structured query language

Chesley Wehner

1621611360

Learn SQL: How to prevent SQL Injection attacks

In the previous articles we’ve talked about SQL injection and dynamic SQL but we lacked an answer on how to prevent SQL injection attacks. Today we’ll do exactly that and show you one possible approach to how to do it. We’ll also mention other possible threats and approaches you could take.

Data Model

Nothing had changed in our model since the last article, so we’ll use the same model we’ve used so far.

In this article, we won’t focus so much on data, but rather on the code we could use to prevent SQL injection attacks. This code could be easily modified to fit your needs, or you could add some checks in case we missed some of them.

#sql commands #t-sql #sql #sql injection

Marielle Rippin

1603760400

Introduction to Recursive CTE

This article will introduce the concept of SQL recursive. Recursive CTE is a really cool. We will see that it can often simplify our code, and avoid a cascade of SQL queries!

Why use a recursive CTE ?

The recursive queries are used to query hierarchical data. It avoids a cascade of SQL queries, you can only do one query to retrieve the hierarchical data.

What is recursive CTE ?

First, what is a CTE? A CTE (Common Table Expression) is a temporary named result set that you can reference within a SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement. For example, you can use CTE when, in a query, you will use the same subquery more than once.

A recursive CTE is one having a subquery that refers to its own name!

Recursive CTE is defined in the SQL standard.

How to make a recursive CTE?

A recursive CTE has this structure:

The WITH clause must begin with “WITH RECURSIVE”
The recursive CTE subquery has two parts, separated by “UNION [ALL]” or “UNION DISTINCT”:
The first part produces the initial row(s) for the CTE. This SELECT does not refer to the CTE name.
The second part recurses by referring to the CTE name in its FROM clause.

Practice / Example

In this example, we use hierarchical data. Each row can have zero or one parent. And it parent can also have a parent etc.

Create table test (id integer, parent_id integer);

insert into test (id, parent_id) values (1, null);

insert into test (id, parent_id) values (11, 1);
insert into test (id, parent_id) values (111, 11);

insert into test (id, parent_id) values (112, 11);

insert into test (id, parent_id) values (12, 1);

insert into test (id, parent_id) values (121, 12);

For example, the row with id 111 has as ancestors: 11 and 1.

Before knowing the recursive CTE, I was doing several queries to get all the ancestors of a row.

For example, to retrieve all the ancestors of the row with id 111.

While (has parent)

	Select id, parent_id from test where id = X

With recursive CTE, we can retrieve all ancestors of a row with only one SQL query :)

WITH RECURSIVE cte_test AS (
	SELECT id, parent_id FROM test WHERE id = 111
	UNION 
	SELECT test.id, test.parent_id FROM test JOIN cte_test ON cte_test.id = test.parent_id

) SELECT * FROM cte_test

Explanations:

“WITH RECURSIVE”:

It indicates we will make recursive

“SELECT id, parent_id FROM test WHERE id = 111”:

It is the initial query.

“UNION … JOIN cte_test” :

It is the recursive expression! We make a jointure with the current CTE!

Replay this example here

#sql #database #sql-server #sql-injection #writing-sql-queries #sql-beginner-tips #better-sql-querying-tips #sql-top-story

Chesley Wehner

1621542900

Learn SQL: SQL Injection

SQL Injection is a well-known technique used to attack SQL-based applications. In this article, we’ll focus on examples showing how you could exploit database vulnerabilities using this technique, while in the next article we’ll talk about ways how you can protect your application from such attacks.

Data Model

In this article, we’ll use the same data model we’re using throughout this series, so there were no changes in the structure or data of tables, since last time.

The only thing we’ll do is add some new tables to prove we can do it using SQL injection, as well as delete these tables.

#sql commands #t-sql #sql #sql injection

Cayla Erdman

1596441660

Welcome Back the T-SQL Debugger with SQL Complete – SQL Debugger

When you develop large chunks of T-SQL code with the help of the SQL Server Management Studio tool, it is essential to test the “Live” behavior of your code by making sure that each small piece of code works fine and being able to allocate any error message that may cause a failure within that code.

The easiest way to perform that would be to use the T-SQL debugger feature, which used to be built-in over the SQL Server Management Studio tool. But since the T-SQL debugger feature was removed completely from SQL Server Management Studio 18 and later editions, we need a replacement for that feature. This is because we cannot keep using the old versions of SSMS just to support the T-SQL Debugger feature without “enjoying” the new features and bug fixes that are released in the new SSMS versions.

If you plan to wait for SSMS to bring back the T-SQL Debugger feature, vote in the Put Debugger back into SSMS 18 to ask Microsoft to reintroduce it.

As for me, I searched for an alternative tool for a T-SQL Debugger SSMS built-in feature and found that Devart company rolled out a new T-SQL Debugger feature to version 6.4 of SQL – Complete tool. SQL Complete is an add-in for Visual Studio and SSMS that offers scripts autocompletion capabilities, which help develop and debug your SQL database project.

The SQL Debugger feature of SQL Complete allows you to check the execution of your scripts, procedures, functions, and triggers step by step by adding breakpoints to the lines where you plan to start, suspend, evaluate, step through, and then to continue the execution of your script.

You can download SQL Complete from the dbForge Download page and install it on your machine using a straight-forward installation wizard. The wizard will ask you to specify the installation path for the SQL Complete tool and the versions of SSMS and Visual Studio that you plan to install the SQL Complete on, as an add-in, from the versions that are installed on your machine, as shown below:

Once SQL Complete is fully installed on your machine, the dbForge SQL Complete installation wizard will notify you of whether the installation was completed successfully or the wizard faced any specific issue that you can troubleshoot and fix easily. If there are no issues, the wizard will provide you with an option to open the SSMS tool and start using the SQL Complete tool, as displayed below:

When you open SSMS, you will see a new “Debug” tools menu, under which you can navigate the SQL Debugger feature options. Besides, you will see a list of icons that will be used to control the debug mode of the T-SQL query at the leftmost side of the SSMS tool. If you cannot see the list, you can go to View -> Toolbars -> Debugger to make these icons visible.

During the debugging session, the SQL Debugger icons will be as follows:

The functionality of these icons within the SQL Debugger can be summarized as:

Adding Breakpoints to control the execution pause of the T-SQL script at a specific statement allows you to check the debugging information of the T-SQL statements such as the values for the parameters and the variables.
Step Into is “navigate” through the script statements one by one, allowing you to check how each statement behaves.
Step Over is “execute” a specific stored procedure if you are sure that it contains no error.
Step Out is “return” from the stored procedure, function, or trigger to the main debugging window.
Continue executing the script until reaching the next breakpoint.
Stop Debugging is “terminate” the debugging session.
Restart “stop and start” the current debugging session.

#sql server #sql #sql debugger #sql server #sql server stored procedure #ssms #t-sql queries

How can I prevent SQL injection in PHP?

What is GEEK

Buddha Community

Correctly setting up the connection

Explanation

Can prepared statements be used for dynamic queries?

Introduction to Structured Query Language SQL pdf

Learn SQL: How to prevent SQL Injection attacks

Data Model

Introduction to Recursive CTE

Why use a recursive CTE ?

What is recursive CTE ?

How to make a recursive CTE?

Practice / Example

Learn SQL: SQL Injection

Data Model

Welcome Back the T-SQL Debugger with SQL Complete – SQL Debugger