What is a SQL Injection Attack, and How Can You Protect Against It?

What is a SQL Injection Attack, and How Can You Protect Against It?

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Cybercriminals are innovative and will stop at nothing to ensure they can access your company's data and finances. As such, they have an array of techniques that they can use. One of these cybercrime techniques is a SQL Injection attack (SQLi).

A SQL (Structured Query Language) statement is used legitimately to perform database tasks, like retrieving data from a SQL database. Data is valuable, both to a business and to a cybercriminal. SQL Injection attacks give a hacker access to data stored in a SQL database. Industry watchdog OWASP keeps track of the top ten security risks - SQL Injection comes in at number three.

What is a SQL Injection Attack?

What is a SQL Injection Attack?

SQL Injection attacks open the door to a company database, bypassing authentication and directly accessing the database. A SQL Injection is based on manipulating a SQL statement to perform tasks that allow a cybercriminal to update or retrieve data from a database. For example, the SELECT Statement can be manipulated to allow an attacker to exfiltrate data from a database. As such, SQLi works by placing simple but malicious code in SQL statements via web page input.

If the web application is not configured to sanitize the SQL statements, malicious actors can exploit this flaw and inject malicious code into the database, stealing or modifying the data.

SQL injection impacts the triumvirate of data security:

  • Confidentiality – A SQLi can expose sensitive data.
  • Availability – A SQLi attack can seriously damage a database, making data unavailable.
  • Integrity – Data can be manipulated and modified by a SQLi attack.

Steps to Carry Out a SQL Injection Attack

  1. A target is identified, for example, a company with customer information that can be used to sell on the dark web.
  2. The attackers identify a vulnerability in the web app that they can exploit. Typical elements include input fields, URL parameters, headers, and cookies.
  3. The malicious SQL code is created. Hackers use various tricks to bypass authentication; examples include using the condition ' OR '1'='1, which the database accepts as always true. This technique ignores any password check, allowing the attacker to bypass the authentication process. This technique is not always necessary to bypass authentication.
  4. The attacker executes the malicious code using the vulnerable input field.
  5. If the database is not configured securely, the attacker will be successful in executing the malicious SQL command.

Insider Threats and SQL Injection

Insider Threats and SQL Injection

Employees can become insiders who use SQL injection to steal data. Insiders have many motivations for malicious acts against their employer or a partner company. These may involve financial motivations and disgruntled employees.

Sometimes, an employee may be recruited to collude with a third party. Dark web recruiters target specific individuals to perform malicious acts against a company. Research has found that developers are the most popular among dark web recruiters, but others, such as administrators, are also popular. Insiders can more easily exploit web application and database vulnerabilities and create code to facilitate SQLi attacks.

Sometimes, SQL Injections happen accidentally. For example, a system admin could misconfigure a web app, leaving the database vulnerable to SQL Injection attacks.

External Threats and SQL Injection

External Threats and SQL Injection

External actors use SQL Injection to get direct access to a database to steal data, modify data, and cause distributed denial of service (DDoS) events, the manipulation of the database being used to undermine a web server. External SQL Injection threats are direct network-based threats, as opposed to other external cyberattacks that use social engineering/Phishing or malware infections.

What Security Risks Do SQL Injection Attacks Cause?

A SQL Injection has broad impacts beyond data exposure and theft. Recent research has shown how a SQL Injection in the FlyCASS cockpit security system could allow someone to bypass airport security. FLYCASS verifies flight crew jumpseat eligibility. However, the following scenarios are the most common outcomes of a SQLi.

Data Breaches

SQLi are often used to exfiltrate data from a SQL database. There are various reasons why an attacker may want to access your data, including to sell on dark web marketplaces for profit, to expose data on public forums, to use to export a ransom, to gather intelligence to carry out further cyberattacks, and if the database contains unsecured passwords the attacker can potentially take over user accounts.

The exposure of customer data and other PII (including Protected Health Data, i.e., PHI) leads to the violation of security and privacy laws.

Exposure of Sensitive Corporate Information

Data stolen using an SQL Injection attack can lead to many data-related risks. Stolen customer data, for example, may be released or sold to a competitor, resulting in customer loss. Loss of Intellectual Property or other company secrets can also impact the competitive edge. There is also the risk of extortion if sensitive company information gets into the hands of a malicious individual.

How Much Could a SQL Injection Cost an SMB

How Much Could a SQL Injection Cost an SMB

Data Breach Costs

IBM tracks data breach costs. The latest report findings show that the average cost of a data breach is $4.88 million. The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, which surveyed small, to medium-sized companies, found that the costs of a data breach vary from $120,000 to $1.24 million.

Data breaches can lead to other cyberattacks, including account takeovers (ATO). Account Takeover hackers use legitimate accounts to carry out fraudulent transactions. The average cost of fraud to an SMB is over $16,000, and over half of businesses (54%) never recover their losses.

Noncompliance Fines

Fines vary depending on the regulation and the severity of a breach. For example, the US California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) imposes fines of up to $7,500 per intentional violation and up to $2,500 per unintentional violation. The violations cover incidents involving unauthorized access, theft, or disclosure of non-encrypted and non-anonymized personal data, exactly what an SQL Injection attack sets out to do.

Reputation Damage and Loss of Customer Trust

The theft of customer data often leads to attacks targeting those customers. Phishing is an example of follow-on attacks that occur once a cybercriminal has email addresses, names, and other personal information. Studies show that 80% of customers would not continue to shop on a site where an account takeover had occurred.

IP Leaks and Company Secret Exposure

SQL Injection attacks steal all kinds of data, including login credentials and other information, to allow cyber criminals to create hyper-personalized phishing campaigns. SQLi can lead to follow-on attacks that target company design specs, customer data, and Intellectual property. Cybercriminals can sell this proprietary data on dark web marketplaces or directly to competitors. The price paid for lost company IP is difficult to quantify, but if you lost your company's secret sauce to a competitor, how much would it cost your business?

How To Protect Your Company From SQL Injection Attacks

Like all other cyberattacks, SQL Injection Attacks use various techniques and lead to follow-on attacks. However, the following security measures are best practices for preventing SQLi:

Scan and Monitor Database-Connected Applications

Scanning tools look for vulnerabilities that can leave security gaps that SQLi exploits. Monitoring database-connected apps can identify rogue SQL statements. Scanning and monitoring help mitigate issues before they become incidents.

Enforce Least Privilege Access Rights

Least privilege access is a principle based on allowing access on a need-to-know basis. Enforcing the least privilege mitigates unauthorized access, making it more difficult for cybercriminals to take control of devices, apps, and networks. Using the least privilege to limit access privileges can help reduce the risk of SQLi attacks.

Dark Web Monitoring

Monitoring the dark web for signs of leaked company data can help reduce the risk of follow-on cyberattacks. Dark web monitoring tools also provide deep insight into the dark web to determine whether attackers are targeting your company.

Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF)

A WAF is used to filter the various forms of SQL injection and block malicious SQLi attacks before they access an app database.

Patch Your Databases Regularly

Database vulnerabilities can be exploited during an SQL Injection attack. Therefore, always promptly patch databases. Use intelligence from the US Department of Homeland Security's CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) database to keep abreast of any vulnerabilities.

Sanitize and Validate Your Inputs

Prevent special characters, such as ' OR '1' = '1' in queries from being used. To validate inputs, use allowlists rather than blocklists, allowing expected characters and rejecting unexpected characters to validate inputs. This reduces the chance of a successful SQL Injection.

Security Awareness Training

SQL Injection can happen accidentally. Educate all your developers, employees, IT staff, and System Administrators on the risks of SQL queries.

Post-Breach Public Relation Policies

Post-breach relations are a vital part of handling a data breach. Having a policy that clearly explains how to handle authorities, press, and customers after a breach is not only good for maintaining trust but also an essential requirement in many data protection regulations.

For further technical details on preventing SQL Injection attacks, check out the OWASP "SQL Injection Prevention Cheat Sheet".

Real-World Examples of SQL Injection Attacks

As one of the most common forms of techniques used to hack into databases, there are many SQL Injection attacks. Below are two examples to demonstrate the impact of a malicious SQL statement:

Multiple Companies: MOVEit Vulnerability

Progress Software identified a SQL Injection vulnerability (CVE-2023-34362) in their MOVEit Transfer product. The vulnerability quickly became a supply chain attack. MOVEit Transfer is a managed file transfer (MFT) solution used by IT Suppliers. Companies that use the services of IT Suppliers who depend on MOVEit were impacted, including companies like McDonald's, British Airways, and the BBC. The vulnerability allowed an unauthenticated attacker to gain access to databases connected to the product.

Compromised Online Job Listings

A hacking group known as ResumeLooters stole the personal data of over two million job applicants after compromising 65 legitimate job listings and retail sites. The attackers used malicious SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) to gain unauthorized access to the data.

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