How do I create a parameterized SQL query? Why Sho

Question

I've heard that "everyone" is using parameterized SQL queries to protect against SQL injection attacks without having to vailidate every piece of user input.

How do you do this? Do you get this automatically when using stored procedures?

So my understanding this is non-parameterized:

cmdText = String.Format("SELECT foo FROM bar WHERE baz = '{0}'", fuz)

Would this be parameterized?

cmdText = String.Format("EXEC foo_from_baz '{0}'", fuz)

Or do I need to do somethng more extensive like this in order to protect myself from SQL injection?

With command
    .Parameters.Count = 1
    .Parameters.Item(0).ParameterName = "@baz"
    .Parameters.Item(0).Value = fuz
End With

Are there other advantages to using parameterized queries besides the security considerations?

Update: This great article was linked in one of the questions references by Grotok. http://www.sommarskog.se/dynamic_sql.html

Answer 1

Your EXEC example would NOT be parameterized. You need parameterized queries (prepared statements in some circles) to prevent input like this from causing damage:

';DROP TABLE bar;--

Try putting that in your fuz variable (or don't, if you value your bar table). More subtle and damaging queries are possible as well.

Here's an example of how you do parameters with Sql Server:

Public Function GetBarFooByBaz(ByVal Baz As String) As String
    Dim sql As String = "SELECT foo FROM bar WHERE baz= @Baz"

    Using cn As New SqlConnection("Your connection string here"), _
        cmd As New SqlCommand(sql, cn)

        cmd.Parameters.Add("@Baz", SqlDbType.VarChar, 50).Value = Baz
        Return cmd.ExecuteScalar().ToString()
    End Using
End Function

Stored procedures are sometimes credited with preventing SQL injection. However, most of the time you still have to call them using query parameters or they don't help. If you use stored procedures exclusively, then you can turn off permissions for SELECT, UPDATE, ALTER, CREATE, DELETE, etc (just about everything but EXEC) for the application user account and get some protection that way.

Answer 2

Your command text need to be like:

cmdText = "SELECT foo FROM bar WHERE baz = ?"

cmdText = "EXEC foo_from_baz ?"

Then add parameter values. This way ensures that the value con only end up being used as a value, whereas with the other method if variable fuz is set to

"x'; delete from foo where 'a' = 'a"

can you see what might happen?

Answer 3

Most people would do this through a server side programming language library, like PHP's PDO or Perl DBI.

For instance, in PDO:

$dbh=pdo_connect(); //you need a connection function, returns a pdo db connection

$sql='insert into squip values(null,?,?)';

$statement=$dbh->prepare($sql);

$data=array('my user supplied data','more stuff');

$statement->execute($data);

if($statement->rowCount()==1){/*it worked*/}

This takes care of escaping your data for database insertion.

One advantage is that you can repeat an insert many times with one prepared statement, gaining a speed advantage.

For instance, in the above query I could prepare the statement once, and then loop over creating the data array from a bunch of data and repeat the ->execute as many times as needed.

Answer 4

You want to go with your last example as this is the only one that is truly parametrized. Besides security concerns (which are much more prevalent then you might think) it is best to let ADO.NET handle the parametrization as you cannot be sure if the value you are passing in requires single quotes around it or not without inspecting the Type of each parameter.

[Edit] Here is an example:

SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand(
    "select foo from bar where baz = @baz",
    yourSqlConnection
);

SqlParameter parameter = new SqlParameter();
parameter.ParameterName = "@baz";
parameter.Value = "xyz";

command.Parameters.Add(parameter);

Answer 5

Definitely the last one, i.e.

Or do I need to do somethng more extensive ...? (Yes, cmd.Parameters.Add())

Parametrized queries have two main advantages:

• Security: It is a good way to avoid SQL Injection vulnerabilities
• Performance: If you regularly invoke the same query just with different parameters a parametrized query might allow the database to cache your queries which is a considerable source of performance gain.
• Extra: You won't have to worry about date and time formatting issues in your database code. Similarly, if your code will ever run on machines with a non-English locale, you will not have problems with decimal points / decimal commas.

Answer 6

Here's a short class to start with SQL and you can build from there and add to the class.

MySQL

Public Class mysql

    'Connection string for mysql
    Public SQLSource As String = "Server=123.456.789.123;userid=someuser;password=somesecurepassword;database=somedefaultdatabase;"

    'database connection classes

    Private DBcon As New MySqlConnection
    Private SQLcmd As MySqlCommand
    Public DBDA As New MySqlDataAdapter
    Public DBDT As New DataTable
    Public BindSource As New BindingSource
    ' parameters
    Public Params As New List(Of MySqlParameter)

    ' some stats
    Public RecordCount As Integer
    Public Exception As String

    Function ExecScalar(SQLQuery As String) As Long
        Dim theID As Long
        DBcon.ConnectionString = SQLSource
        Try
            DBcon.Open()
            SQLcmd = New MySqlCommand(SQLQuery, DBcon)
            'loads params into the query
            Params.ForEach(Sub(p) SQLcmd.Parameters.AddWithValue(p.ParameterName, p.Value))

            'or like this is also good
            'For Each p As MySqlParameter In Params
            ' SQLcmd.Parameters.AddWithValue(p.ParameterName, p.Value)
            ' Next
            ' clears params
            Params.Clear()
            'return the Id of the last insert or result of other query
            theID = Convert.ToInt32(SQLcmd.ExecuteScalar())
            DBcon.Close()

        Catch ex As MySqlException
            Exception = ex.Message
            theID = -1
        Finally
            DBcon.Dispose()
        End Try
        ExecScalar = theID
    End Function

    Sub ExecQuery(SQLQuery As String)

        DBcon.ConnectionString = SQLSource
        Try
            DBcon.Open()
            SQLcmd = New MySqlCommand(SQLQuery, DBcon)
            'loads params into the query
            Params.ForEach(Sub(p) SQLcmd.Parameters.AddWithValue(p.ParameterName, p.Value))

            'or like this is also good
            'For Each p As MySqlParameter In Params
            ' SQLcmd.Parameters.AddWithValue(p.ParameterName, p.Value)
            ' Next
            ' clears params

            Params.Clear()
            DBDA.SelectCommand = SQLcmd
            DBDA.Update(DBDT)
            DBDA.Fill(DBDT)
            BindSource.DataSource = DBDT  ' DBDT will contain your database table with your records
            DBcon.Close()
        Catch ex As MySqlException
            Exception = ex.Message
        Finally
            DBcon.Dispose()
        End Try
    End Sub
    ' add parameters to the list
    Public Sub AddParam(Name As String, Value As Object)
        Dim NewParam As New MySqlParameter(Name, Value)
        Params.Add(NewParam)
    End Sub
End Class

MS SQL/Express

Public Class MSSQLDB
    ' CREATE YOUR DB CONNECTION
    'Change the datasource
    Public SQLSource As String = "Data Source=someserver\sqlexpress;Integrated Security=True"
    Private DBCon As New SqlConnection(SQLSource)

    ' PREPARE DB COMMAND
    Private DBCmd As SqlCommand

    ' DB DATA
    Public DBDA As SqlDataAdapter
    Public DBDT As DataTable

    ' QUERY PARAMETERS
    Public Params As New List(Of SqlParameter)

    ' QUERY STATISTICS
    Public RecordCount As Integer
    Public Exception As String

    Public Sub ExecQuery(Query As String, Optional ByVal RunScalar As Boolean = False, Optional ByRef NewID As Long = -1)
        ' RESET QUERY STATS
        RecordCount = 0
        Exception = ""
        Dim RunScalar As Boolean = False

        Try
            ' OPEN A CONNECTION
            DBCon.Open()

            ' CREATE DB COMMAND
            DBCmd = New SqlCommand(Query, DBCon)

            ' LOAD PARAMS INTO DB COMMAND
            Params.ForEach(Sub(p) DBCmd.Parameters.Add(p))

            ' CLEAR PARAMS LIST
            Params.Clear()

            ' EXECUTE COMMAND & FILL DATATABLE
            If RunScalar = True Then
                NewID = DBCmd.ExecuteScalar()
            End If
            DBDT = New DataTable
            DBDA = New SqlDataAdapter(DBCmd)
            RecordCount = DBDA.Fill(DBDT)
        Catch ex As Exception
            Exception = ex.Message
        End Try


        ' CLOSE YOUR CONNECTION
        If DBCon.State = ConnectionState.Open Then DBCon.Close()
    End Sub

    ' INCLUDE QUERY & COMMAND PARAMETERS
    Public Sub AddParam(Name As String, Value As Object)
        Dim NewParam As New SqlParameter(Name, Value)
        Params.Add(NewParam)
    End Sub
End Class