Injection vulnerabilities, often ranked as the top category in the OWASP Top 10, refer to various types of attacks where an attacker can inject malicious code into an application. These attacks can lead to unauthorized access, data manipulation, and other security issues. The most common types of injection attacks include:
- SQL Injection (SQLi):
- In SQL injection attacks, malicious SQL statements are inserted into user inputs, such as login forms or search fields, to manipulate the application’s database. This can lead to unauthorized access, data disclosure, and data manipulation.
- NoSQL Injection
- Similar to SQL injection, NoSQL injection targets NoSQL databases. Attackers inject malicious queries into input fields to exploit vulnerabilities in the way the application interacts with NoSQL databases, potentially leading to unauthorized access or data exposure.
- OS Command Injection
- OS command injection involves manipulating the input of an application to execute malicious operating system commands. This can result in unauthorized access, data loss, or even complete compromise of the host system.
- LDAP Injection
- In LDAP injection attacks, malicious input is crafted to manipulate LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) queries. This can lead to unauthorized access or exposure of sensitive information stored in directory services.
- XPath Injection
- XPath is a language used for navigating XML documents. XPath injection occurs when attackers manipulate input data to exploit vulnerabilities in XPath queries, potentially leading to unauthorized access or data disclosure in XML-based applications.
- Code Injection
- Code injection vulnerabilities arise when an attacker injects malicious code into an application. This can include injecting code in interpreted languages like PHP, Python, or JavaScript, leading to the execution of arbitrary code on the server.
- Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) Injection
- ORM injection occurs when attackers manipulate queries generated by an application’s ORM system. This can lead to unauthorized access or modification of database records through manipulation of the underlying object-relational mapping.
- Server-Side Template Injection (SSTI)
- SSTI vulnerabilities involve injecting malicious code into server-side templates. This can lead to the execution of arbitrary code on the server, potentially compromising the application and its data.
Injection attacks are typically prevented by using parameterized queries, prepared statements, and input validation to ensure that user inputs are properly sanitized before being processed by the application. Regular security assessments and code reviews can help identify and address injection vulnerabilities in web applications.
