Biblio

Databases are at the heart of modern applications and any threats to them can seriously endanger the safety and functionality of applications relying on the services offered by a DBMS. It is therefore pertinent to identify key risks to the secure operation of a database system. This paper identifies the key risks, namely, SQL injection, weak audit trails, access management issues and issues with encryption. A malicious actor can get help from any of these issues. It can compromise integrity, availability and confidentiality of the data present in database systems. The paper also identifies various means and ways to defend against these issues and remedy them. This paper then proceeds to identify from the literature, the potential solutions to these ameliorate the threat from these vulnerabilities. It proposes the usage of encryption to protect the data from being breached and leveraging encrypted databases such as CryptoDB. Better access control norms are suggested to prevent unauthorized access, modification and deletion of the data. The paper also recommends ways to prevent SQL injection attacks through techniques such as prepared statements.

With the rapid development of Internet technology, the era of big data is coming. SQL injection attack is the most common and the most dangerous threat to database. This paper studies the working mode and workflow of the GreenSQL database firewall. Based on the analysis of the characteristics and patterns of SQL injection attack command, the input model of GreenSQL learning is optimized by constructing the patterned input and optimized whitelist. The research method can improve the learning efficiency of GreenSQL and intercept samples in IPS mode, so as to effectively maintain the security of background database.

Internet of Things (IoT) can create the world with the integration of the physical things with the seamlessly network of information purposely to give a sophisticated and smart service for human life. A variety of threats and attacks to IoT object, however, can lead to the misuse of data or information to the IoT objects. One of the attacks is On-off Attack in which the attacker acts not only as an object with a good manner by sending the valid trust value but also sometimes as a bad object by sending invalid one. To respond this action, there is a need for the object security to such attacks. Here the writer used the Trustworthiness Management as a method to cope with this attack. Trustworthiness Management can use the aspect of trust value security as a reference for detecting an attack to the object. In addition, with the support of security system using the authentication provided by MQTT, it is expected that it can provide an additional security. The approach used in this research was the test on On-Off Attack detection directly to the object connected to the network. The results of the test were then displayed on the webpage made using PHP and MySQL database as the storage of the values sent by the object to the server. The test on the On-off Attack detection was successfully conducted with the success level of 100% and the execution to detection took 0.5518318 seconds. This then showed that Trustworthiness Management can be used as one of the methods to cope with On-off Attack.

In order to effectively do network security protection, detecting system vulnerabilities becomes an indispensable process. Here, the vulnerability detection module with three functions is assembled into a device, and a composite detection tool with multiple functions is proposed to deal with some frequent vulnerabilities. The tool includes a total of three types of vulnerability detection, including cross-site scripting attacks, SQL injection, and directory traversal. First, let's first introduce the principle of each type of vulnerability; then, introduce the detection method of each type of vulnerability; finally, detail the defenses of each type of vulnerability. The benefits are: first, the cost of manual testing is eliminated; second, the work efficiency is greatly improved; and third, the network is safely operated in the first time.

It is critical to secure the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices because of potentially devastating consequences in case of an attack. Machine learning (ML) and big data analytics are the two powerful leverages for analyzing and securing the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. By extension, these techniques can help improve the security of the IIoT systems as well. In this paper, we first present common IIoT protocols and their associated vulnerabilities. Then, we run a cyber-vulnerability assessment and discuss the utilization of ML in countering these susceptibilities. Following that, a literature review of the available intrusion detection solutions using ML models is presented. Finally, we discuss our case study, which includes details of a real-world testbed that we have built to conduct cyber-attacks and to design an intrusion detection system (IDS). We deploy backdoor, command injection, and Structured Query Language (SQL) injection attacks against the system and demonstrate how a ML-based anomaly detection system can perform well in detecting these attacks. We have evaluated the performance through representative metrics to have a fair point of view on the effectiveness of the methods.

Detection of network attacks is the first step to network security. Many different methods for attack detection were proposed in the past. However, descriptions of these methods are often not complete and it is difficult to verify that the actual implementation matches the description. In this demo paper, we propose to use Complex Event Processing (CEP) for developing detection methods based on network flows. By writing the detection methods in an Event Processing Language (EPL), we can address the above-mentioned problems. The SQL-like syntax of most EPLs is easily readable so the detection method is self-documented. Moreover, it is directly executable in the CEP system, which eliminates inconsistencies between documentation and implementation. The demo will show a running example of a multi-stage HTTP brute force attack detection using Esper and its EPL.

System penetration testing is an important measure of discovering information system security issues. This paper summarizes and analyzes the high-risk problems found in the penetration testing of the artificial storm prediction system for power grid storm disasters from four aspects: application security, middleware security, host security and network security. In particular, in order to overcome the blindness of PGRDAIPS current SQL injection penetration test, this paper proposes a SQL blind bug based on improved second-order fragmentation reorganization. By modeling the SQL injection attack behavior and comparing the SQL injection vulnerability test in PGRDAIPS, this method can effectively reduce the blindness of SQL injection penetration test and improve its accuracy. With the prevalence of ubiquitous power internet of things, the electric power information system security defense work has to be taken seriously. This paper can not only guide the design, development and maintenance of disaster prediction information systems, but also provide security for the Energy Internet disaster safety and power meteorological service technology support.

One of the challenges in supplying the communities with wider access to scientific databases is the need for knowledge of database languages like Structured Query Language (SQL). Although the SQL language has been published in many forms, not everybody is able to write SQL queries. Another challenge is that it might not be practical to make the public aware of the structure of databases. There is a need for novice users to query relational databases using their natural language. To solve this problem, many natural language interfaces to structured databases have been developed. The goal is to provide a more intuitive method for generating database queries and delivering responses. Through social media, which makes it possible to interact with a wide section of the population, and with the help of natural language processing, researchers at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Data Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a concept to enable easy search and retrieval of data from several environmental data centers for the scientific community through social media.Using a machine learning framework that maps natural language text to thousands of datasets, instruments, variables, and data streams, the prototype system would allow users to request data through Twitter and receive a link (via tweet) to applicable data results on the project's search catalog tailored to their key words. This automated identification of relevant data from various petascale archives at ORNL could increase convenience, access, and use of the project's data by the broader community. In this paper we discuss how some data-intensive projects at ORNL are using innovative ways to help in data discovery.

This paper present an approach to automate the conversion of Natural Language Query to SQL Query effectively. Structured Query Language is a powerful tool for managing data held in a relational database management system. To retrieve or manage data user have to enter the correct SQL Query. But the users who don't have any knowledge about SQL are unable to retrieve the required data. To overcome this we proposed a model in Natural Language Processing for converting the Natural Language Query to SQL query. This helps novice user to get required content without knowing any complex details about SQL. This system can also deal with complex queries. This system is designed for Training and Placement cell officers who work on student database but don't have any knowledge about SQL. In this system, user can also enter the query using speech. System will convert speech into the text format. This query will get transformed to SQL query. System will execute the query and gives output to the user.

In today's world web applications have become an instant means for information broadcasting. At present, man has become so dependent on web applications that everything done through electronic means like e-banking, e-shopping, online payment of bills etc. Due to an unauthorized admittance might threat customer's or user's confidentiality, integrity and authority. SQL injection considered as most Spartan dangerous coercions to the databases of web applications. current scenario databases are highly susceptible to SQL Injection[4] . SQL Injection is one of the most popular and dangerous hacking or cracking technique . In this work authors projected a novel approach to mitigate SQL Injection Attacks in a database. We have illustrated a technique or method prevent SQLIA by incorporating a hybrid encryption in form of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and Elliptical Curve Cryptography (ECC) [5]. In this research paper integrated approach of encryption method is followed to prevent the databases of the web applications against SQL Injection Attack. Incidentally if an invader gains access to the database, then it can cause severe damage and ends up with retrieves data or information. So to prevent these type of attacks a combined approach is projected , Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) at login phase to prevent the unauthorized access to databases and on the other hand Elliptical Curve Cryptography (ECC) to encode the database so that without the key no one can access the database information [3]. This research paper illustrates the technique to prevent SQL Injection Attack.

This paper presents, PriDe, a model to measure the deviation of an analyst's (user) querying behaviour from normal querying behaviour. The deviation is measured in terms of privacy, that is to say, how much of the privacy loss has incurred due to this shift in querying behaviour. The shift is represented in terms of a score - a privacy-loss score, the higher the score the more the loss in privacy. Querying behaviour of analysts are modelled using n-grams of SQL query and subsequently, behavioural profiles are constructed. Profiles are then compared in terms of privacy resulting in a quantified score indicating the privacy loss.

In this paper, we present a combinatorial testing methodology for testing web applications in regards to SQL injection vulnerabilities. We describe three attack grammars that were developed and used to generate concrete attack vectors. Furthermore, we present and evaluate two different oracles used to observe the application's behavior when subjected to such attack vectors. We also present a prototype tool called SQLInjector capable of automated SQL injection vulnerability testing for web applications. The developed methodology can be applied to any web application that uses server side scripting and HTML for handling user input and has a SQL database backend. Our approach relies on the use of a database proxy, making this a gray-box testing method. We establish the effectiveness of the proposed tool with the WAVSEP verification framework and conduct a case study on real-world web applications, where we are able to discover both known vulnerabilities and additional previously undiscovered flaws.

Stealing confidential information from a database has become a severe vulnerability issue for web applications. The attacks can be prevented by defining a whitelist of SQL queries issued by web applications and detecting queries not in list. For large-scale web applications, automated generation of the whitelist is conducted because manually defining numerous query patterns is impractical for developers. Conventional methods for automated generation are unable to detect attacks immediately because of the long time required for collecting legitimate queries. Moreover, they require application-specific implementations that reduce the versatility of the methods. As described herein, we propose a method to generate a whitelist automatically using queries issued during web application tests. Our proposed method uses the queries generated during application tests. It is independent of specific applications, which yields improved timeliness against attacks and versatility for multiple applications.

This SQL injection attack is one of the common means for hackers to attack database. With the development of B/S mode application development, more and more programmers use this mode to write applications. However, due to the uneven level and experience of programmers, a considerable number of programmers do not judge the legitimacy of user input data when writing code, which makes the application security risks. Users can submit a database query code and get some data they want to know according to the results of the program. SQL injection attack belongs to one of the means of database security attack. It can be effectively protected by database security protection technology. This paper introduces the principle of SQL injection, the main form of SQL injection attack, the types of injection attack, and how to prevent SQL injection. Discussed and illustrated with examples.

In the last few years, the usage and dependency on web applications and websites has significantly increased across a number of different areas such as online banking, shopping, financial transactions etc. amongst the several other areas. This has even directly multiplied the threat of SQL injection issue. A number of past studies have suggested that SQL injection should be handled as effectively as possible in order to avoid long term threats and dangers. This paper in specific attempts to discuss and evaluate some of the main SQL injection prevention methods.

SQL injection attacks are a kind of the greatest security risks on Web applications. Much research has been done to detect SQL injection attacks by rule matching and syntax tree. However, due to the complexity and variety of SQL injection vulnerabilities, these approaches fail to detect unknown and variable SQL injection attacks. In this paper, we propose a model, ATTAR, to detect SQL injection attacks using grammar pattern recognition and access behavior mining. The most important idea of our model is to extract and analyze features of SQL injection attacks in Web access logs. To achieve this goal, we first extract and customize Web access log fields from Web applications. Then we design a grammar pattern recognizer and an access behavior miner to obtain the grammatical and behavioral features of SQL injection attacks, respectively. Finally, based on two feature sets, machine learning algorithms, e.g., Naive Bayesian, SVM, ID3, Random Forest, and K-means, are used to train and detect our model. We evaluated our model on these two feature sets, and the results show that the proposed model can effectively detect SQL injection attacks with lower false negative rate and false positive rate. In addition, comparing the accuracy of our model based on different algorithms, ID3 and Random Forest have a better ability to detect various kinds of SQL injection attacks.

This paper defines a class of SQL-injection attacks that are based on injecting identifiers, such as table and column names, into SQL statements. An automated analysis of GitHub shows that 15.7% of 120,412 posted Java source files contain code vulnerable to SQL-Identifier Injection Attacks (SQL-IDIAs). We have manually verified that some of the 18,939 Java files identified during the automated analysis are indeed vulnerable to SQL-ID IAs, including deployed Electronic Medical Record software for which SQL-IDIAs enable discovery of confidential patient information. Although prepared statements are the standard defense against SQL injection attacks, existing prepared-statement APIs do not protect against SQL-IDIAs. This paper therefore proposes and evaluates an extended prepared-statement API to protect against SQL-IDIAs.

Typically, in an assessment project for a web application or database with a large scale and scope, tasks required to be performed by a security analyst are such as SQL injection and penetration testing. To carry out these large-scale tasks, the analyst will have to perform 100 or more SQLi penetration tests on one or more target. This makes the process much more complex and much harder to implement. This paper attempts to compare large-scale SQL injections performed with Manual Methods, which is the benchmark, and the proposed SQLiAutoScript Method. The SQLiAutoScript method uses sqlmap as a tool, in combination with sqlmap scripting and logging features, to facilitate a more effective and manageable approach within a large scale of hundreds or thousands of SQL injection penetration tests. Comparison of the test results for both Manual and SQLiAutoScript approaches and their benefits is included in the comparative analysis. The tests were performed over a scope of 24 SQL injection (SQLi) tests that comprises over 100,000 HTTP requests and injections, and within a total testing run-time period of about 50 hours. The scope of testing also covers both SQLiAutoScript and Manual methods. In the SQLiAutoScript method, each SQL injection test has its own sub-folder and files for data such as results (output), progress (traffic logs) and logging. In this way across all SQLi tests, the results, data and details related to SQLi tests are logged, available, traceable, accurate and not missed out. Available and traceable data also facilitates traceability of failed SQLi tests, and higher recovery and reruns of failed SQLi tests to maximize increased attack surface upon the target.

Recent advances in networking and communication technologies have enabled Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices to communicate more frequently and faster. An IoT device typically transmits data over the Internet which is an insecure channel. Cyber attacks such as denial-of-service (DoS), man-in-middle, and SQL injection are considered as big threats to IoT devices. In this paper, an anomaly-based intrusion detection scheme is proposed that can protect sensitive information and detect novel cyber-attacks. The Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm is used to train the Random Neural Network (RNN) based system (RNN-ABC). The proposed scheme is trained on NSL-KDD Train+ and tested for unseen data. The experimental results suggest that swarm intelligence and RNN successfully classify novel attacks with an accuracy of 91.65%. Additionally, the performance of the proposed scheme is also compared with a hybrid multilayer perceptron (MLP) based intrusion detection system using sensitivity, mean of mean squared error (MMSE), the standard deviation of MSE (SDMSE), best mean squared error (BMSE) and worst mean squared error (WMSE) parameters. All experimental tests confirm the robustness and high accuracy of the proposed scheme.

The sensitivity of a function is the maximum change of its output for a unit change of its input. In this paper we present a method for determining the sensitivity of SQL queries, seen as functions from databases to datasets, where the change is measured in the number of rows that differ. Given a query, a database schema and a number, our method constructs a formula that is satisfiable only if the sensitivity of the query is bigger than this number. Our method is composable, and can also be applied to SQL workflows. Our results can be used to calibrate the amount of noise that has to be added to the output of the query to obtain a certain level of differential privacy.

Data outsourcing to cloud has been a common IT practice nowadays due to its significant benefits. Meanwhile, security and privacy concerns are critical obstacles to hinder the further adoption of cloud. Although data encryption can mitigate the problem, it reduces the functionality of query processing, e.g., disabling SQL queries. Several schemes have been proposed to enable one-dimensional query on encrypted data, but multi-dimensional range query has not been well addressed. In this paper, we propose a secure and scalable scheme that can support multi-dimensional range queries over encrypted data. The proposed scheme has three salient features: (1) Privacy: the server cannot learn the contents of queries and data records during query processing. (2) Efficiency: we utilize hierarchical cubes to encode multi-dimensional data records and construct a secure tree index on top of such encoding to achieve sublinear query time. (3) Verifiability: our scheme allows users to verify the correctness and completeness of the query results to address server's malicious behaviors. We perform formal security analysis and comprehensive experimental evaluations. The results on real datasets demonstrate that our scheme achieves practical performance while guaranteeing data privacy and result integrity.

The heart of any enterprise is its databases where the application data is stored. Organizations frequently place certain access control mechanisms to prevent access by unauthorized employees. However, there is persistent concern about malicious insiders. Anomaly-based intrusion detection systems are known to have the potential to detect insider attacks. Accurate modelling of insiders behaviour within the framework of Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) requires attention. The majority of past research considers SQL queries in isolation when modelling insiders behaviour. However, a query in isolation can be safe, while a sequence of queries might result in malicious access. In this work, we consider sequences of SQL queries when modelling behaviours to detect malicious RDBMS accesses using frequent and rare item-sets mining. Preliminary results demonstrate that the proposed approach has the potential to detect malicious RDBMS accesses by insiders.

Since radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been used in various scenarios such as supply chain, access control system and credit card, tremendous efforts have been made to improve the authentication between tags and readers to prevent potential attacks. Though effective in certain circumstances, these existing methods usually require a server to maintain a database of identity related information for every tag, which makes the system vulnerable to the SQL injection attack and not suitable for distributed environment. To address these problems, we now propose a novel blockchain-based mutual authentication security protocol. In this new scheme, there is no need for the trusted third parties to provide security and privacy for the system. Authentication is executed as an unmodifiable transaction based on blockchain rather than database, which applies to distributed RFID systems with high security demand and relatively low real-time requirement. Analysis shows that our protocol is logically correct and can prevent multiple attacks.

With so much our daily lives relying on digital devices like personal computers and cell phones, there is a growing demand for code that not only functions properly, but is secure and keeps user data safe. However, ensuring this is not such an easy task, and many developers do not have the required skills or resources to ensure their code is secure. Many code analysis tools have been written to find vulnerabilities in newly developed code, but this technology tends to produce many false positives, and is still not able to identify all of the problems. Other methods of finding software vulnerabilities automatically are required. This proof-of-concept study applied natural language processing on Java byte code to locate SQL injection vulnerabilities in a Java program. Preliminary findings show that, due to the high number of terms in the dataset, using singular decision trees will not produce a suitable model for locating SQL injection vulnerabilities, while random forest structures proved more promising. Still, further work is needed to determine the best classification tool.

There are over 1 billion websites today, and most of them are designed using content management systems. Cybersecurity is one of the most discussed topics when it comes to a web application and protecting the confidentiality, integrity of data has become paramount. SQLi is one of the most commonly used techniques that hackers use to exploit a security vulnerability in a web application. In this paper, we compared SQLi vulnerabilities found on the three most commonly used content management systems using a vulnerability scanner called Nikto, then SQLMAP for penetration testing. This was carried on default WordPress, Drupal and Joomla website pages installed on a LAMP server (Iocalhost). Results showed that each of the content management systems was not susceptible to SQLi attacks but gave warnings about other vulnerabilities that could be exploited. Also, we suggested practices that could be implemented to prevent SQL injections.