Prevent SQL injection attacks in a Java program
I have to add a statement to my java program to update a database table:
String insert =
"INSERT INTO customer(name,address,email) VALUES('" + name + "','" + addre + "','" + email + "');";
I heard that this can be exploited through an SQL injection like:
DROP TABLE customer;
My program has a Java GUI and all name, address and email values are retrieved from Jtextfields
. I want to know how the following code (DROP TABLE customer;
) could be added to my insert statement by a hacker and how I can prevent this.
You need to use PreparedStatement. e.g.
String insert = "INSERT INTO customer(name,address,email) VALUES(?, ?, ?);";
PreparedStatement ps = connection.prepareStatement(insert);
ps.setString(1, name);
ps.setString(2, addre);
ps.setString(3, email);
ResultSet rs = ps.executeQuery();
This will prevent injection attacks.
The way the hacker puts it in there is if the String you are inserting has come from input somewhere - e.g. an input field on a web page, or an input field on a form in an application or similar.
I want to know how this kind piece of code("DROP TABLE customer;") can be added to my insert statement by a hacker
For example:
name = "'); DROP TABLE customer; --"
would yield this value into insert:
INSERT INTO customer(name,address,email) VALUES(''); DROP TABLE customer; --"','"+addre+"','"+email+"');
I specially want to know how can I prevent this
Use prepared statements and SQL arguments (example "stolen" from Matt Fellows):
String insert = "INSERT INTO customer(name,address,email) VALUES(?, ?, ?);";
PreparedStament ps = connection.prepareStatment(insert);
Also parse the values you have on such variables and make sure they don't contain any non-allowed characters (such as ";" in a name).
You can check THIS article for info on that! :)
I recommend Parameterized Queries:
String selectStatement = "SELECT * FROM User WHERE userId = ? ";
PreparedStatement prepStmt = con.prepareStatement(selectStatement);
prepStmt.setString(1, userId);
ResultSet rs = prepStmt.executeQuery();