I need to create functionality for users to determine the WHERE criteria of a select - the criteria will be dynamic.
Is there a way I can achieve this without opening up my code to SQL injection?
I'm using C# / .NET Windows Application.
Using parameterized queries would go long way toward protecting you from SQL injection attacks, because most bad things happen in the value portion of your where conditions.
For exampleg given a condition a=="hello" && b=="WORLD", do this:
select a,b,c,d
from table
where a=#pa and b=#pb -- this is generated dynamically
Then, bind #pa="hello" and #pb="WORLD", and run your query.
In C#, you would start with an in-memory representation of your where clause in hand, go through it element-by-element, and produce two output objects:
A string with the where clause, where constants are replaced by automatically generated parameter references pa, pb, and so on (use your favorite naming scheme for these blind parameters: the actual names do not matter)
A dictionary of name-value pairs, where names correspond to the parameters that you've inserted in your where clause, and values that correspond to the constants that you pulled from the expression representation.
With these outputs in hand, you prepare your dynamic query using the string, add parameter values using the dictionary, and then execute the query against your RDBMS source.
DO NOT DO THIS
select a,b,c,d
from table
where a='hello' and b='WORLD' -- This dynamic query is ripe for an interjection attack
Ah two phases. Given you column names and operators are not direct user input. E.g. picked from a list or radio group etc
then
String WhereClause = String.Format("Where {0} {1} #{0}","Customer", "=");
So now you Have "Where Customer = #Customer".
Then you can add aparamer Customer and set it from the user input.
There are a few ways to attack this, depends on how complex your criteria could be though.
Related
I have a basic REST service backed by a PostgreSQL database with a table with various columns, one of which is a JSONB column that contains arbitrary data. Clients can store data filling in the fixed columns and provide any JSON as opaque data that is stored in the JSONB column.
I want to allow the client to query the database with constraints on both the fixed columns and the JSONB. It is easy to translate some query parameters like ?field=value and convert that into a parameterized SQL query for the fixed columns, but I want to add an arbitrary JSONB query to the SQL as well.
This JSONB query string could contain SQL injection, how can I prevent this? I think that because the structure of the JSONB data is arbitrary I can't use a parameterized query for this purpose. All the documentation I can find suggests I use parameterized queries, and I can't find any useful information on how to actually sanitize the query string itself, which seems like my only option.
For example a similar question is:
How to prevent SQL Injection in PostgreSQL JSON/JSONB field?
But I can't apply the same solution as I don't know the structure of the JSONB or the query, I can't assume the client wants to query a particular path using a particular operator, the entire JSONB query needs to be freely provided by the client.
I'm using golang, in case there are any existing libraries or code fragments that I can use.
edit: some example queries on the JSONB that the client might do:
(content->>'company') is NULL
(content->>'income')::numeric>80000
content->'company'->>'name'='EA' AND (content->>'income')::numeric>80000
content->'assets'#>'[{"kind":"car"}]'
(content->>'DOB')::TIMESTAMP<'2000-01-30T10:12:18.120Z'::TIMESTAMP
EXISTS (SELECT FROM jsonb_array_elements(content->'assets') asset WHERE (asset->>'value')::numeric > 100000)
Note that these don't cover all possible types of queries. Ideally I want any query that PostgreSQL supports on the JSONB data to be allowed. I just want to check the query to ensure it doesn't contain sql injection. For example, a simplistic and probably inadequate solution would be to not allow any ";" in the query string.
You could allow the users to specify a path within the JSON document, and then parameterize that path within a call to a function like json_extract_path_text. That is, the WHERE clause would look like:
WHERE json_extract_path_text(data, $1) = $2
The path argument is just a string, easily parameterized, which describes the keys to traverse down to the given value, e.g. 'foo.bars[0].name'. The right-hand side of the clause would be parameterized along the same rules as you're using for fixed column filtering.
First off this is my first attempt at a multi select. I've done a lot of searching but I can't find the answer that works for me.
I have a postgresql query which has bg.revision_key in (_revision_key) which holds the parameter. A side note, we've named all our parameters in the queries with the underscore and they all work, they are single select in SSRS.
In my SSRS report I have a parameter called Revision Key Segment which is the multi select parameter. I've ticked Allow multi value and in Available Values I have value field pointing to revision_key in the dataset.
In my dataset parameter options I have Parameter Value [#revision_key]
In my shared dataset I also have my parameter set to Allow multi value.
For some reason I can't seem to get the multi select to work so I must be missing something somewhere but I've ran out of ideas.
Unlike with SQL Server, when you connect to a database using an ODBC connection, the parameter support is different. You cannot use named parameters and instead have to use the ? syntax.
In order to accommodate multiple values you can concatenate them into a single string and use a like statement to search them. However, this is inefficient. Another approach is to use a function to split the values into an in-line table.
In PostgreSQL you can use an expression like this:
inner join (select CAST(regexp_split_to_table(?, ',') AS int) as filter) as my on my.filter = key_column
Then in the dataset properties, under the parameters tab, use an expression like this to concatenate the values:
=Join(Parameters!Keys.Value, ",")
In other words, the report is concatenating the values into a comma-separated list. The database is splitting them into a table of integers then inner joining on the values.
I am using the fatfree framework, and on the front-end I am using jQuery datatables plugin with server-side processing. And thus, my server-side controller may or may not receive a variable number of information, for example a variable number of columns to sort on, a variable number of filtering options and so forth. So if I don't receive any request for sorting, I don't need to have a ORDER BY portion in my query. So I want to generate the query string in parts as per certain conditions and join it at the end to get the final query for execution. But if I do it this way, I won't have any data sanitization which is really bad.
Is there a way I can use the frameworks internal sanitization methods to build the query string in parts? Also is there a better/safer way to do this than how I am approaching it?
Just use parameterized queries. They are here to prevent SQL injection.
Two possible syntaxes are allowed:
with question mark placeholders:
$db->exec('SELECT * FROM mytable WHERE username=? AND category=?',
array(1=>'John',2=>34));
with named placeholders:
$db->exec('SELECT * FROM mytable WHERE username=:name AND category=:cat',
array(':name'=>'John',':cat'=>34));
EDIT:
The parameters are here to filter the field values, not the column names, so to answer more specifically to your question:
you must pass filtering values through parameters to avoid SQL injection
you can check if column names are valid by testing them against an array
Here's a quick example:
$columns=array('category','age','weight');//columns available for filtering/sorting
$sql='SELECT * FROM mytable';
$params=array();
//filtering
$ctr=0;
if (isset($_GET['filter']) && is_array($_GET['filter'])
foreach($_GET['filter'] as $col=>$val)
if (in_array($col,$columns,TRUE)) {//test for column name validity
$sql.=($ctr?' AND ':' WHERE ')."$col=?";
$params[$ctr+1]=$val;
$ctr++;
}
//sorting
$ctr=0;
if (isset($_GET['sort']) && is_array($_GET['sort'])
foreach($_GET['sort'] as $col=>$asc)
if (in_array($col,$columns,TRUE)) {//test for column name validity
$sql.=($ctr?',':' ORDER BY ')."$col ".($asc?'ASC':'DESC');
$ctr++;
}
//execution
$db->exec($sql,$params);
NB: if column names contain weird characters or spaces, they must be quoted: $db->quote($col)
I have a field in table in next format 1_2..1_10|1_6|1_8| where 1_2..1_10 include 1_2, 1_3 and other.
How I can select data, where number = 1_3?
1st suggestion: Get rights to modify the db structure and figure out how to better store the Navision string.
2nd suggestion: CLR
I'll assume you are relatively comfortable with each of these concepts. If you aren't they are very well documented all over the web.
My approach would be to use a CLR function as there's going to be some high level things that are awkward in SQL that C# takes care of quite easily. The psuedo walk through would go something like this.
Implementation
Create a CLR funciton and implement it on the SQL server instance.
Using SQL resultset change the query to look for the returned value of the CLR function based on the navision filter value where "1_3".
CLR Function Logic
Create a c# function that takes in the value of the filter field and returns a string value.
The CLR function splits the filter field by the | char into a list.
Inside the CLR function create a second list. Iterate over the first list. When you find a ranged string split it on the ".." and manually add every available value between the range to the second list. When you find a value that isnt' ranged simply add it to the second list.
Join the contents of the second list together on the "|" charecter.
Return the joined value.
SQL Logic
SELECT Field1,Field2...CLRFunctionName(FilterValue) AS FixedFilterValue FROM Sometable WHERE FixedFilterValue LIKE '%1_3%';
I have some code which utilizes parameterized queries to prevent against injection, but I also need to be able to dynamically construct the query regardless of the structure of the table. What is the proper way to do this?
Here's an example, say I have a table with columns Name, Address, Telephone. I have a web page where I run Show Columns and populate a select drop-down with them as options.
Next, I have a textbox called Search. This textbox is used as the parameter.
Currently my code looks something like this:
result = pquery('SELECT * FROM contacts WHERE `' + escape(column) + '`=?', search);
I get an icky feeling from it though. The reason I'm using parameterized queries is to avoid using escape. Also, escape is likely not designed for escaping column names.
How can I make sure this works the way I intend?
Edit:
The reason I require dynamic queries is that the schema is user-configurable, and I will not be around to fix anything hard-coded.
Instead of passing the column names, just pass an identifier that you code will translate to a column name using a hardcoded table. This means you don't need to worry about malicious data being passed, since all the data is either translated legally, or is known to be invalid. Psudoish code:
#columns = qw/Name Address Telephone/;
if ($columns[$param]) {
$query = "select * from contacts where $columns[$param] = ?";
} else {
die "Invalid column!";
}
run_sql($query, $search);
The trick is to be confident in your escaping and validating routines. I use my own SQL escape function that is overloaded for literals of different types. Nowhere do I insert expressions (as opposed to quoted literal values) directly from user input.
Still, it can be done, I recommend a separate — and strict — function for validating the column name. Allow it to accept only a single identifier, something like
/^\w[\w\d_]*$/
You'll have to rely on assumptions you can make about your own column names.
I use ADO.NET and the use of SQL Commands and SQLParameters to those commands which take care of the Escape problem. So if you are in a Microsoft-tool environment as well, I can say that I use this very sucesfully to build dynamic SQL and yet protect my parameters
best of luck
Make the column based on the results of another query to a table that enumerates the possible schema values. In that second query you can hardcode the select to the column name that is used to define the schema. if no rows are returned then the entered column is invalid.
In standard SQL, you enclose delimited identifiers in double quotes. This means that:
SELECT * FROM "SomeTable" WHERE "SomeColumn" = ?
will select from a table called SomeTable with the shown capitalization (not a case-converted version of the name), and will apply a condition to a column called SomeColumn with the shown capitalization.
Of itself, that's not very helpful, but...if you can apply the escape() technique with double quotes to the names entered via your web form, then you can build up your query reasonably confidently.
Of course, you said you wanted to avoid using escape - and indeed you don't have to use it on the parameters where you provide the ? place-holders. But where you are putting user-provided data into the query, you need to protect yourself from malicious people.
Different DBMS have different ways of providing delimited identifiers. MS SQL Server, for instance, seems to use square brackets [SomeTable] instead of double quotes.
Column names in some databases can contain spaces, which mean you'd have to quote the column name, but if your database contains no such columns, just run the column name through a regular expression or some sort of check before splicing into the SQL:
if ( $column !~ /^\w+$/ ) {
die "Bad column name [$column]";
}