mdulin2 / comp-security-project

comp-security-project

For the first week of the project, Trevor spent time using Google to understand what an SQL injection is, and how to perform one. An SQL injection is a web-based attack wherein the attacker might gain access to a system by using SQL syntax in a form text entry field.

In a Login form, the backend program might utilize code that takes the user's entry and stores it in a variable called userIDEntry. Then, the JavaScript code would look like this code from https://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_injection.asp:

txtUserId = getRequestString("UserId");
txtSQL = "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserId = " + txtUserId;

To view information about the system, the attacker might provide the entry:

105 OR 1 = 1

The resultant SQL entry would then be

SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserId = 105 OR 1 = 1;

This would return the Users table for the attacker to see. If the Users table also contains passwords, then the attacker has attained a complete list of usernames and passwords for the site. Similar code can also be used to gain unauthorized access to a system.