I realize that parameterized SQL queries is the optimal way to sanitize user input when building queries that contain user input, but I’m wondering what is wrong with taking user input and escaping any single quotes and surrounding the whole string with single quotes. Here’s the code:
sSanitizedInput = ''' & Replace(sInput, ''', '''') & ''' Any single-quote the user enters is replaced with double single-quotes, which eliminates the users ability to end the string, so anything else they may type, such as semicolons, percent signs, etc., will all be part of the string and not actually executed as part of the command.
We are using Microsoft SQL Server 2000, for which I believe the single-quote is the only string delimiter and the only way to escape the string delimiter, so there is no way to execute anything the user types in.
I don’t see any way to launch an SQL injection attack against this, but I realize that if this were as bulletproof as it seems to me someone else would have thought of it already and it would be common practice.
What’s wrong with this code? Is there a way to get an SQL injection attack past this sanitization technique? Sample user input that exploits this technique would be very helpful.
UPDATE:
I still don’t know of any way to effectively launch a SQL injection attack against this code. A few people suggested that a backslash would escape one single-quote and leave the other to end the string so that the rest of the string would be executed as part of the SQL command, and I realize that this method would work to inject SQL into a MySQL database, but in SQL Server 2000 the only way (that I’ve been able to find) to escape a single-quote is with another single-quote; backslashes won’t do it.
And unless there is a way to stop the escaping of the single-quote, none of the rest of the user input will be executed because it will all be taken as one contiguous string.
I understand that there are better ways to sanitize input, but I’m really more interested in learning why the method I provided above won’t work. If anyone knows of any specific way to mount a SQL injection attack against this sanitization method I would love to see it.
First of all, it’s just bad practice. Input validation is always necessary, but it’s also always iffy.
Worse yet, blacklist validation is always problematic, it’s much better to explicitly and strictly define what values/formats you accept. Admittedly, this is not always possible – but to some extent it must always be done.
Some research papers on the subject:
Point is, any blacklist you do (and too-permissive whitelists) can be bypassed. The last link to my paper shows situations where even quote escaping can be bypassed.
Even if these situations do not apply to you, it’s still a bad idea. Moreover, unless your app is trivially small, you’re going to have to deal with maintenance, and maybe a certain amount of governance: how do you ensure that its done right, everywhere all the time?
The proper way to do it: