Question

So I’m building a bit of an API where users can query my database with read-only access. However, I want to block certain fields, specifically IP addresses. I’m currently using preg_replace in PHP to match and switch out IPs, but I feel like someone could get around that with come clever string-splitting MySQL functions.

Is there a way I can block/replace/obfuscate this particular field for this read-only MySQL user?

The record would be at (table.field):

`TrafficIp`.`Value`

An example query they might use would be

SELECT COUNT(*) Hits, Value IpAddress
FROM TrafficIp
INNER JOIN Traffic
ON Traffic.IpId = TrafficIp.Id
GROUP BY Value
ORDER BY Hits DESC

How would I bait and switch?

Answer 1

You could create a view of your table that omits the field with the IP address, and let API users query that view, but not the underlying table.

Really, instead of trying to do “damage control” on the back end of the query, your API should be filtering the queries before they ever make it to the database. It is highly inadvisable to just pass through raw SQL queries from the outside world, into your database.