php - SQL injections in ADOdb and general website security

Question

I have done pretty much reading and still don't understand 100% how some of the SQL injections happen!

I'd like to see, from those who know, concrete examples of SQL injection based on my example, so it could be replicated, tested and fixed. I have tried to SQL inject my code and couldn't, so I'd like someone to prove me otherwise!

1.Am I right that SQL injection can happen ONLY with POST or GET methods, meaning that on the website it should be the post form, e.g. 'signup or search' or query like 'search.php?tags=love'?

Saying that is this possible to inject the following code that has POST method?

$name     = trim($_POST['username']);
$mail     = trim($_POST['email']);
$password = trim($_POST['password ']);

   if ($errors == "false") {
    $sql = 
        "INSERT INTO 
           clients 
         SET 
           name='" . mysql_real_escape_string($name) . "',
           mail='" . mysql_real_escape_string($mail) . "', 
           password='" . mysql_real_escape_string(sha1($password)) . "'";
           $connection->execute($sql);
        
    }

2.The other one has GET method: rate.php?like&videoID=250&userID=30

$sql = 
    "SELECT 
        videoID 
     FROM 
        likes 
     WHERE 
        videoID = '" .mysql_real_escape_string($videoID). "' AND UID = '" .mysql_real_escape_string($userID). "' LIMIT 1";
        $connection->execute($sql);

Please help those that feel free with the subject but use the concrete examples.

Thanks in advance,
Ilia

Answer 1

SQL injection attacks happen when user input is improperly encoded. Typically, the user input is some data the user sends with her query, i.e. values in the $_GET, $_POST, $_COOKIE, $_REQUEST, or $_SERVER arrays. However, user input can also come from a variety of other sources, like sockets, remote websites, files, etc.. Therefore, you should really treat everything but constants (like 'foobar') as user input.

In the code you posted, mysql_real_escape_string is used to encode(=escape) user inputs. The code is therefore correct, i.e. does not allow any SQL injection attacks.

Note that it's very easy to forget the call to mysql_real_escape_string - and one time is enough for a skilled attacker! Therefore, you may want to use the modern PDO with prepared statements instead of adodb.