SQL Injection and Cross Site Scripting- A Primer
SQL injection is a kind of malware attack that seriously exploits a website’s susceptibility to security threats. Typically, chunks of malicious code are inserted into strings and passed over to, say, an instance of SQL server for two reasons- parsing as well as execution. A typical example is Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a typical example of a vulnerability in web applications that facilitate attackers to inject malicious script ( client side) into web pages accessed by users.
Normally, procedures that are used to construct SQL statements are thoroughly checked for such vulnerabilities, as SQL server, by default, executes every syntactically valid query that it receives. It’s imperative that one checks for vulnerabilities since even parameterized data could be easily manipulated by a determined and skilled hacker. One important form of SQL injection comprises of inserting code into variables that are later concatenated with commands before execution. However, there’s this attack which is less direct but injects enough malicious code into variable strings which are meant to be stored as metadata or in a table. As a result, when the said strings are later concatenated into a intelligently written piece of SQL command, execution takes place.
Usually, a malefactor would stop additional strings from being appended to the main command, to shun any remote chances of easy recovery. This is usually done with a comment that wrongly says that subsequent code would be ignored at time of execution. Having said that, I’d say, the effect of SQL injection can be minimal when you’re vigilant and wary of such attacks. Security experts advise that one always uses stored procedures rather than query as validation happens at the server side before the parameter passes. Look for unique symbols and replace if they may harm database. Error reporting helps you do it right as network security weakens.
On the other hand, cross site scripting has become quite popular for intrusion and theft of f valuable data over the network. Generally, cross site scripting attacks are considered to be kind of injection of malicious scripts into otherwise trusted and benign web sites, carried out through browser side script to one or multiple terminals.
The effect of these attacks deal heavy blow to websites, given that the flaws that could this type of an attack are pretty widespread, and happen whenever the web app fails to encode or validate data fed into it. When an unsuspecting user is targeted, he doesn’t understand whether or not a script cannot be trusted. Moreover, his browser in all probability would execute the SQL injection script, as it would camouflage to have come from a trusted source. Anyway attackers determine the intent of the script and would normally use it to steal cookies, tokens of different sessions especially the ones involving financial transactions, and other user sensitive information readily available, say pre-saved passwords, account numbers etc.
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