SQL injection (SQLi) is one of the most common online threats. In fact, OWASP - a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving software security - first lists all types of injections, SQL injection (SQLi) is the main risk for application security. . This brings us to the question: how to defend oneself?
The penetration test (or "pentesting" in short) consists of simulating attacks on software to determine their weaknesses. It is useful to detect vulnerabilities before they are found and used by cybercriminals. At the time, it was a long and difficult process, but it is much easier now, thanks to the tools.
The tools pentesting - also known as penetration testing tools - automate and accelerate the simulation process of attacks and detect software vulnerabilities. They help ethical hackers to test software in a better and efficient style. That said, let's see what are the best test tools for testing SQL injection. But first of all, let's look briefly at the basic injection in SQL.
What is SQL injection (SQLi)?
SQL injection is a code injection technique used to attack a database. Since a database is behind each software, the software is violated if the database is violated. This is crucial because SQLi can be used to bypass application security measures , such as a login form that allows privileged members to update a bank account holder's data.
SQL injection usually occurs when you ask the user for entries and enters an SQL statement that you run without your knowledge on your database. For example, if you ask the user for his ID and enter "1051 OR 1 = 1" , this is an injection attack.
Let's see it in action. Suppose your software uses this query to confirm the user's identity: "SELECT * FROM User_Data WHERE User_ID = Input_Here ". Then, if it enters " 1051 OR 1 = 1 ", the query becomes " SELECT * FROM User_Data WHERE User_ID = 1051 OR 1 = 1 ". Since " 1 = 1 " is always true and is joined by OR, the query is true. Thus, the user is identified as valid, even if he is not!
What is the solution? The recommended solution is to validate all entries and to switch to parameter queries and prepared statements. However, you may miss any of these techniques by mistake in your software, right? This is known as a bug or vulnerability, which must be found and fixed to prevent an attack.
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SQLi vulnerabilities search tools
1. OWASP ZAP
OWASP Zed Attack (ZAP) proxy is one of the most popular free security tools. It is open source software that helps you detect vulnerabilities in your web applications during the development and testing phases. It has many advanced features to meet the demands of experienced testers.
It is specifically designed to test web applications (not desktop software or mobile applications). In addition, it works on all popular platforms (including Docker), thanks to its code base written in Java. Its most interesting feature is that it is extensible and flexible; you can use its free add-ons to meet special needs.
That said, let's look at some of its features that help detect bugs:
- Includes an automated scan option for automatic launch testing on a given website and testing for all types of security vulnerabilities.
- Features of headless mode to develop automation software.
- API features to control almost all of its features.
2. w3af
w3af, which stands for "web application attack and audit platform," is a security testing platform designed to help you secure your web applications. It's another free, open-source vulnerability tester that helps you detect and exploit security vulnerabilities in web applications. It boasts of its ability to detect more than 200 vulnerabilities, including injection of clicks and SQL injection.
Let's see its list of features, which is great, since it's a free tool, as below:
- Supports automation with its own set of scripts (text files with their commands on each line, just like Windows batch scripts).
- Supports various types of logging - console, text files, and even email reports - to help your future automation tool know the results.
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- Supports a fuzzing engine that can inject payloads into almost any part of HTTP requests; it is also customizable from the settings page.
- Supports tool extension by writing plugins (Python scripts).
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3-SQLMAP
As an open source penetration testing tool, sqlmap automates the process of finding and exploiting SQLi bugs. It comes with a powerful detection engine, which offers supersonic features for an expert penetration tester. In addition, it incorporates a variety of switches, ranging from fingerprinting to database and data over-extraction to low-level file system access on the operating system of the database. data.
This is just the beginning. The list of its features is huge, so let's see the best:
- Supports the most common databases including IBM DB2, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL and SQLite.
- Supports all the main injection techniques , namely Classic SQLi, including its subtypes (SQLi based on errors and SQLi based on Union), Blind SQLi, including its subtypes (Blind based on the boolean and time-based SQLi), out-of-band SQLi, and SQL injection based on stacked queries.
- Supports the recognition of password hash types and their resolution.
- Supports searching inside and emptying tables according to your settings.
- Supports execution of commands on the underlying operating system and receipt of their standard outputs if the database is supported.
These are penetration testing tools for detecting SQL injection vulnerabilities in your web applications. It is suggested to start with OWASP ZAP as it can test websites and inform you about links or vulnerable pages. Then you can use the other tools in these links or web pages to detect SQLi bugs. Finally, you must fix these vulnerabilities for security reasons.
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