SQL Injection Protection
If you’re collecting any sort of data on your website, then you absolutely must know how to protect your website from SQL injection attacks. There are several strategies you can use to protect against this common threat. None of them offers complete protection, but, taken together they can form a very robust defense.
How to protect website from SQL injection
When looking at how to protect your website from SQL injection attacks, there are three key points you need to keep in mind at all times. Firstly, the fewer data-input channels you have on your website, the fewer opportunities hackers have for injecting SQL. Secondly, the better you control the input of data on those channels, the harder it becomes for hackers to inject SQL. Thirdly, really determined hackers can still potentially find a way to inject SQL, so it’s important to think about what can be done to stop this SQL from causing any damage.
Managing your data-input channels
In simple terms, any time you are thinking about offering an application that requires a web user to enter data, then consider it in terms of risk versus reward. Realistically, many SMBs are going to have to collect data on their websites and deal with the risk it involves. There is, however, a major difference between “most” and “all”. For example, if the main purpose of your website is to showcase services rather than to sell products, then you might be able to cut back substantially, if not completely, on data input.
Controlling your data-input channels
The golden rule of controlling your data-input channels is never to give your users free rein to enter what they like if you can possibly avoid it. This isn’t just about protecting against SQL injection, it can also go a long way to ensuring data quality.
If you’re collecting data, then try to use radio-buttons, drop-down menus, and click-on calendars as much as possible. When you have to use free-text fields, see what can be done to validate the inputs, but be careful. For example, while most properties will have numbers, some may have names. Zipcodes, however, are standardized and are therefore much easier to validate.
If you’re allowing users to upload files, then you need to be particularly careful. Ideally, you should restrict the types of file which can be uploaded, limit their size, and validate very carefully to ensure that users are playing by the rules. Even then, it’s very much preferable to quarantine the uploads for extra security.
Stopping the damage of SQL injections
Before you look at how to eliminate, or at least limit, the damage of SQL injections, it’s important to emphasize that you need a solid baseline of general security. In particular, you need to ensure that all software is kept up-to-date and with default settings changed and permissions set as appropriate.
You also need a website vulnerability scanner for your website plus a robust anti-malware solution for your local computers and mobile devices. Last but not least, you should be managing and monitoring user accounts effectively, especially administrator accounts.
It’s also strongly recommended to minimize the quantity of data you collect. This may actually be a legal requirement depending on your jurisdiction (and the jurisdiction of your users). The less data you collect, the less appealing your database is to hackers and the less exposed you are if there is a security breach.
This last point should not, however, be seen as a justification for reducing your security. You still want to keep it as tight as possible. Essentially, you’re trying to create a situation in which attacking you will be more hassle than it’s worth.
With all that said, the key to limiting the risk of SQL injection attacks is to manage database accesses. First of all, each web application should have its own database account. Sharing database accounts between applications (or, even worse, between websites), is just asking for trouble.
Secondly, each database account should have the minimum level of privilege necessary to complete its intended tasks. It is in the highest degree unlikely that any web application will ever need administrator privileges for a database. They may need INSERT, UPDATE, and/or DELETE privileges, but on many websites, there is going to be a limited need even for these. Most web applications really only need SELECT privileges so that they can retrieve data.
As a final point, be careful about your public-facing error messages. The best way to approach these is generally to have codes for different types of errors. This prevents malicious actors from learning about your internal systems, while still providing a decent amount of information for your internal team (who can look up the meaning of each code).
Please click here now to have your website scanned, for free, by cWatch from Comodo.
What is EDR? EDR refers to endpoint detection and response, a set of tools designed to identify & protect endpoints from cyber threats. Find out more.
Removal
Security stack layer 1
Malware Detect & Removal
Our malware detection scanning, preventive methods and removal enables you to take a proactive approach to protect the business and brand reputation from malware attacks and infections.
- Unsuspecting websites get infected with malicious code.
- Continuous website monitoring to detect any incidents.
- Identify and remediate the cause to hardening your websites.
Comodo cWatch Web can identify malware, provide the tools and methods to remove it, and help to prevent future malware attacks at the edge before it hits the network, included as a paid member.
By clicking the button below, I agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Already have an cWatch account? Sign in here
Response
Security stack layer 5
Cyber Security Operations Center
Our exclusive C.S.O.C. is staffed with certified security analysts to monitor, assess and defend websites, applications, databases, data centers, servers, networks, desktops and other endpoints.
- 24 / 7 / 365 security monitoring using state-of-the-art tech.
- Engage clients of complex threats to resolve the issue.
- Real-time web traffic monitoring and proactive incident fixes.
C.S.O.C. checks for threats, identifies and analysis then performs the necessary actions to resolve the issue while offloading costs of in-house experts by using stack layer 3 to handle the heavy lifting.
By clicking the button below, I agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Already have an cWatch account? Sign in here
Intelligence
Security stack layer 3
Security Information • Event Management
S.I.E.M. collects logs and events the network traffic and web assets, security devices, operating systems, applications, databases, and reviews the vulnerabilities using artificial intelligence to process.
- Reduces billions of events into prioritized threats real-time.
- Identifies changes in network behavior with activity baselines.
- Flows data searches in real-time streaming or historical mode.
S.I.E.M. senses and tracks significant threats to links to all online supporting data and context for easier investigation. While anomaly detection to identify changes associated with the network safety.
By clicking the button below, I agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Already have an cWatch account? Sign in here
Prevention
Security stack layer 4
Web Application Firewall
W.A.F. by Comodo eliminates application vulnerabilities to protect websites and web applications against advanced attacks including Denial-of-Service (DDoS), SQL Injection and Cross-Site Scripting.
- Destroys malicious requests and thwart hack attempts.
- Protection to account registration forms and login pages.
- Malicious bots and brute force attacks are block and patched.
Combined with malware scanning, vulnerability scanning and automatic virtual patching and hardening engines provides robust security is fully managed for Comodo cWatch Web customers.
By clicking the button below, I agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Already have an cWatch account? Sign in here
Performance
Security stack layer 2
Add a network of globally distributed servers designed to boost the speed for websites and web applications by transferring content to your user based on their proximity to the nearest CDN web server.
- Proven to increase search engine rankings and site scores.
- 29 worldwide CDN node locations to reach your users.
- Save your bandwidth by leveraging CDN browser caching.
CDN serves your users your website content with virtually unlimited capacity. Giving you the freedom to focus less on site maintenance, more on scaling the uptime of your traffic and target audience.
By clicking the button below, I agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Already have an cWatch account? Sign in here
Compliance
Security stack layer 6
Payment Card Industry • Data Security Standard
PCI • DSS ensures that your customers' cardholder info is kept secure from security breaches through a meticulous scan of your network and applications to identify and fix security vulnerabilities.
- Simple and automated way to stay compliant with PCI • DSS.
- Pass the requirements for the 12 points PCI • DSS standard.
- Schedule on-demand PCI scans to report quarterly results.
Establishes and implements a firewall, hardens your environment, disables unnecessary services & configures system parameters to prevent misuse, ensures system audit components are protected.
By clicking the button below, I agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Already have an cWatch account? Sign in here
© 2024 Comodo Security Solutions, Inc