Most application developers underestimate the risk of SQL injections attacks against web applications that use Oracle as the back-end database. Our audits of custom web applications show many application developers do not fully understand the risk of SQL injection attacks and simple techniques used to prevent such attacks. This paper is intended for application developers, database administrators, and application auditors to highlight the risk of SQL injection attacks and demonstrate why web applications may be vulnerable. It is not intended to be a tutorial on executing SQL attacks and does not provide instructions on executing these attacks.

Free Ebook Computer Programming in ORACLE : An Introduction to SQL Injection Attacks for Oracle Developers.pdf

SQL Injection Overview

SQL injection is a basic attack used to either gain unauthorized access to a database or to retrieve information directly from the database. The principles behind a SQL injection are simple and these types of attacks are easy to execute and master.

We believe web applications using Oracle as a back-end database are more vulnerable to SQL injection attacks than most application developers think. Our application audits have found many web applications vulnerable to SQL injection even though well established coding standards were in place during development of many of these applications. Function-based SQL injection attacks are of most concern since these attacks do not require knowledge of the application and can be easily automated........more

Fortunately, SQL injection attacks are easy to defend against with simple coding practices. However, every parameter passed to every dynamic SQL statement must be validated or bind variables must be used.

SQL Injection: Oracle versus Other Databases

Oracle has generally faired well against SQL injection attacks as there is no multiple SQL statement support (SQL Server and PostgreSQL), no EXECUTE statement (SQL Server), and no INTO OUTFILE function (MySQL). Also, the use of bind variables in Oracle environments for performance reasons provides the most effective protection against SQL injection attacks Oracle may provide stronger and more inherent protections against SQL injection attacks than other databases, however, Oracle-based applications without proper defenses against these types of attacks can still be vulnerable.

Top