Insecure Use of SQL Queries

Why is this important?

SQL injections are dangerous because they can be easily identified by attackers. Hackers can use SQL injections to read from and sometimes even write to your database. SQL injections are very common and have been the cause of many high-profile breaches.

Check out this video for a high-level explanation:

SQL Injection Explanation Video

This is a biggie, read below to find out how to fix it.

Fixing Insecure Use of SQL Queries

Option A: Use Prepared Statements Securely

  1. Go through the issues that GuardRails identified in the PR.
  2. Look for insecure patterns like this:
  // Persistence Manager
  PersistenceManager pm = getPM();
  Query q = pm.newQuery("select * from Users where name = " + input);
  q.execute();

or:

  // Entity Manager
  EntityManager pm = getEM();
  TypedQuery<UserEntity> q = em.createQuery(
      String.format("select * from Users where name = %s", username),
      UserEntity.class);
  UserEntity res = q.getSingleResult();

or:

  //JDBC Template
  JdbcTemplate jdbc = new JdbcTemplate();
  int count = jdbc.queryForObject("select count(*) from Users where name = '"+paramName+"'", Integer.class);

or:

  // JDBC Injection
  Connection conn = [...];
  Statement stmt = con.createStatement();
  ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery("update COFFEES set SALES = "+nbSales+" where COF_NAME = '"+coffeeName+"'");

or:

  //Scala Slick Injection
  db.run {
   sql"select * from people where name = '#$value'".as[Person]
  }

or:

  //Scala Anorm Injection
  val peopleParser = Macro.parser[Person]("id", "name", "age")
  DB.withConnection { implicit c =>
    val people: List[Person] = SQL("select * from people where name = '" + value + "'").as(peopleParser.*)
  }

or:

  //Android
  String query = "SELECT * FROM  messages WHERE uid= '"+userInput+"'" ;
  Cursor cursor = this.getReadableDatabase().rawQuery(query,null);
  1. Replace it with the following:
  // Persistence Manager
  PersistenceManager pm = getPM();
  Query q = pm.newQuery("select * from Users where name = nameParam");
  q.declareParameters("String nameParam");
  q.execute(input);

or:

  // Entity Manager
  TypedQuery<UserEntity> q = em.createQuery(
  "select * from Users where name = usernameParam",UserEntity.class)
  .setParameter("usernameParam", username);
  UserEntity res = q.getSingleResult();<

or:

  //JDBC Template
  JdbcTemplate jdbc = new JdbcTemplate();
  int count = jdbc.queryForObject("select count(*) from Users where name = ?", Integer.class, paramName);

or:

  // JDBC Injection
  Connection conn = [...];
  conn.prepareStatement("update COFFEES set SALES = ? where COF_NAME = ?");
  updateSales.setInt(1, nbSales);
  updateSales.setString(2, coffeeName);

or:

  //Scala Slick Injection
  db.run {
   sql"select * from people where name = $value".as[Person]
  }

or:

  //Scala Anorm Injection
  val peopleParser = Macro.parser[Person]("id",  "name", "age")
  DB.withConnection { implicit c =>
    val people: List[Person] = SQL"select * from people where name = $value".as(peopleParser.*)
  }

or:

  //Android
  String query = "SELECT * FROM  messages WHERE uid= ?" ;
  Cursor cursor = this.getReadableDatabase().rawQuery(query,new String[] {userInput});
  1. Test it
  2. Ship it 🚢 and relax 🌴

Option B: Use Hibernate Securely

  1. Go through the issues that GuardRails identified in the PR.
  2. Look for insecure patterns like this:
  Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();
  Query q = session.createQuery("select t from UserEntity t where id = " + input);
  q.execute();
  1. Replace it with the following:
  Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();
  Query q = session.createQuery("select t from UserEntity t where id = :userId");
  q.setString("userId",input);
  q.execute();

or by using Hibernate Criteria:

  Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();
  Query q = session.createCriteria(UserEntity.class)
    .add( Restrictions.like("id", input) )
    .list();
  q.execute();
  1. Test it
  2. Ship it 🚢 and relax 🌴

Option C: Use the ESAPI SQL Encoder for Special SQL Characters

  1. Go through the issues that GuardRails identified in the PR.
  2. Look for insecure patterns like this:
  // EntityManager.createQuery
  createQuery("select * from User where id = '"+inputId+"'");

or:

  //Turbine API DSL
  List<Record> BasePeer.executeQuery( "select * from Customer where id=" + inputId );

or:

  //AWS Query Injection
  String customerID = getAuthenticatedCustomerID(customerName, customerCredentials);
  String productCategory = request.getParameter("productCategory");
  ...
  AmazonSimpleDBClient sdbc = new AmazonSimpleDBClient(appAWSCredentials);
  String query = "select * from invoices where productCategory = '"
              + productCategory + "' and customerID = '"
              + customerID + "' order by '"
              + sortColumn + "' asc";
  SelectResult sdbResult = sdbc.select(new SelectRequest(query));
  1. Leverage ESAPI for SQL encoding.
  // EntityManager.createQuery
  import org.owasp.esapi.Encoder;
  createQuery("select * from User where id = '"+Encoder.encodeForSQL(inputId)+"'");

or:

  //Turbine API DSL
  import org.owasp.esapi.Encoder;
  BasePeer.executeQuery("select * from Customer where id = '"+Encoder.encodeForSQL(inputId)+"'");

or:

  //AWS Query Injection
  import org.owasp.esapi.Encoder;
  String customerID = getAuthenticatedCustomerID(customerName, customerCredentials);
  String productCategory = request.getParameter("productCategory");
  ...
  AmazonSimpleDBClient sdbc = new AmazonSimpleDBClient(appAWSCredentials);
  String query = "select * from invoices where productCategory = '"
              + Encoder.encodeForSQL(productCategory) + "' and customerID = '"
              + Encoder.encodeForSQL(customerID) + "' order by '"
              + Encoder.encodeForSQL(sortColumn) + "' asc";
  SelectResult sdbResult = sdbc.select(new SelectRequest(query));
  1. Test it
  2. Ship it 🚢 and relax 🌴

More information

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