A security administrator looking through IDS logs notices the following entry: (where email=joe@joe.com
and passwd= ‘or 1==1’)
Which of the following attacks had the administrator discovered?
A.
SQL injection
B.
XML injection
C.
Cross-site script
D.
Header manipulation
Explanation:
The code in the question is an example of a SQL Injection attack. The code ‘1==1’ will always provide a
value of true. This can be included in statement designed to return all rows in a SQL table.
SQL injection is a code injection technique, used to attack data-driven applications, in which malicious
SQL statements are inserted into an entry field for execution (e.g. to dump the database contents to the
attacker). SQL injection must exploit a security vulnerability in an application’s software, for example,
when user input is either incorrectly filtered for string literal escape characters embedded in SQL
statements or user input is not strongly typed and unexpectedly executed. SQL injection is mostly known
as an attack vector for websites but can be used to attack any type of SQL database.Incorrect Answers:
A: Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of computer security vulnerability typically found in Web
applications. XSS enables attackers to inject client-side script into Web pages viewed by other users.
Cross-site scripting uses known vulnerabilities in web-based applications, their servers, or plug-in systems
on which they rely. Exploiting one of these, attackers fold malicious content into the content being
delivered from the compromised site. When the resulting combined content arrives at the client-side web
browser, it has all been delivered from the trusted source, and thus operates under the permissions
granted to that system. By finding ways of injecting malicious scripts into web pages, an attacker can gain
elevated access-privileges to sensitive page content, session cookies, and a variety of other information
maintained by the browser on behalf of the user. The code in this question in not used for an XSS attack.
B: When a web user takes advantage of a weakness with SQL by entering values that they should not, it is
known as a SQL injection attack. Similarly, when the user enters values that query XML (known as XPath)
with values that take advantage of exploits, it is known as an XML injection attack. XPath works in a
similar manner to SQL, except that it does not have the same levels of access control, and taking
advantage of weaknesses within can return entire documents. The best way to prevent XML injection
attacks is to filter the user’s input and sanitize it to make certain that it does not cause XPath to return
more data than it should. The code in this question in not XML code. This is therefore not an XML
Injection attack.
D: Header manipulation is an attack on an application that access web pages or web services. It involves
introducing unvalidated data in an HTTP response header which can enable cache-poisoning, cross-site
scripting, cross-user defacement, page hijacking, cookie manipulation or open redirect. The code in the
question is not the code you would expect to see in a header manipulation attack. This answer is
therefore incorrect.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_injection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_scripting
Dulaney, Emmett and Chuck Eastton, CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, 6th Edition, Sybex, Indianapolis,
2014, p. 337