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How Injection Attacks Can Lead To Data Breaches?

Sept 25 2021

How Injection Attacks Can Lead To Data Breaches Blog Article

What Are The Types Of Injection Types Of Attacks

Injections are amongst the oldest and most dangerous attacks aimed at web applications and can lead to data theft, data loss, loss of data integrity, denial of service, as well as full system compromise. The primary reason for injection vulnerabilities is usually insufficient user input validation. An injection attack is a malicious code injected in the network which fetched all the information from the database to the attacker. This attack type is considered a major problem in web security and is listed as the number one web application security risk in the OWASP Top 10. SQL Injection flaws are introduced when software developers create dynamic database queries that include user-supplied input. There are several vulnerabilities like SQLI, CODE INJECTIONS, FRAME INJECTION,Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) is a web site vulnerability where a valid user’s browser is used to send a malicious request, possibly via an iFrame. Because the browser sends cookies on a domain basis, if the user is currently logged in to an application, the user’s data may be compromised. For example, consider a scenario where you are logged in to the administration console in a browser. You receive an email message containing a link. You click the link, which opens a new tab in your browser. The page that you opened contains a hidden iFrame that makes a malicious request to the forms server using the cookie from your authenticated AEM forms session. Because User Management receives a valid cookie, it passes the request.

Types Of Attacks

Classic SQLI
Blind or Inference SQL injection
Database management system-specific SQLI
Compounded SQLI
SQL injection + insufficient authentication
SQL injection + DDoS attacks
SQL injection + DNS hijacking
SQL injection + XSS

Vulnerabilities Attacked By Injection Attacks

The best way to determine if your applications are vulnerable to injection attacks is to search the source code for all calls to external resources (e.g., system, exec, fork, Runtime.exec, SQL queries, or whatever the syntax is for making requests to interpreters in your environment). Note that many languages have multiple ways to run external commands. Developers should review their code and search for all places where input from an HTTP request could possibly make its way into any of these calls.
In an SQL injection attack, an attacker includes some SQL in a piece of data that the application expects to receive, like a user’s profile text or email address. Then, because of vulnerability in the application code, the application runs the SQL on the database.
For example, in an application submission of New User for a website:
1. The attacker navigates to the new user page of the target application.
2. In the Email field, they enter text containing SQL that instructs the database to list all the user email addresses in its records.
3. When the form is completed and submitted, the application tries to process the data in the Email field in the normal fashion. However, because of the structure of the data, it is manipulated and runs the statement as a command.
4. The email addresses of all the users are then displayed in a list in the attacker’s browser.

Injection attacks do not necessarily attack SQL databases only, and nor does the method of injecting the malevolent content have to include a ‘web form’ as an injection platform. Any instance where an application allows users to enter or upload data might contain a loophole that can invite an injection attack

Injection Prevention Techniques

With user input channels being the main vector for such attacks, the best approach is controlling and vetting user input to watch for attack patterns. Developers can also avoid vulnerabilities by applying the following main prevention methods.
Input validation
The validation process is aimed at verifying whether or not the type of input submitted by a user is allowed. Input validation makes sure it is the accepted type, length, format, etc. Only the value which passes the validation can be processed. It helps counteract any commands inserted in the input string. In a way, it is similar to looking to see who is knocking before opening the door.

With user input channels being the main vector for such attacks, the best approach is controlling and vetting user input to watch for attack patterns. Developers can also avoid vulnerabilities by applying the following main prevention methods.


SwiftSafe Blog Author

Author

James Maverick

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