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Difference between revisions of "Blind XPath Injection"

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(Simple XPath Injection)
(Simple XPath Injection)
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===Simple XPath Injection===
 
===Simple XPath Injection===
Suppose an application includes the following ASP.NET and C# source code:
+
Before you can understand what Blind XPath Injection is, you must first have a basic understanding of Simple XPath Injection. So, lets suppose an application includes the following ASP.NET and C# source code:
 
   ...
 
   ...
 
   XmlDocument XmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
 
   XmlDocument XmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
Line 30: Line 30:
 
   }
 
   }
  
Based on the way this code is written, an attacker could easily inject an XPath expression into the UserID text field and then submit the query. For example, the attacker could enter the following text into the UserID field (just like with SQL injection):
+
Based on the way this sample code is written, an attacker could try to inject an XPath expression into the UserID text field. For example, the attacker could enter the following text into the UserID text field (just like with SQL injection):
  
 
' or 1=1 or ''='
 
' or 1=1 or ''='
  
If not handled properly by the application, this data entry will always returns the first account number in the XML document. Such an attack is called “Xpath Injection”, which is an basically the same as a “SQL injection” attack. This can result in having the attacker logged in (as the first user listed in the XML document), although the attacker did not provide any valid user name or password.
+
If this entry is not handled properly by the application, then the application will return the first account number in the XML document. If that occurs, the attacker will be logged in as the first user listed in the XML document.
  
 
===Blind XPath Injection===
 
===Blind XPath Injection===

Revision as of 20:26, 8 September 2006

This is an Attack. To view all attacks, please see the Attack Category page.


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Description

About XPath

XPath is a sort of query language that describes how to locate specific elements (including attributes, processing instructions, etc.) in an XML document. Since it is a query language, XPath is somewhat similar to Structured Query Language (SQL). However, XPath can be used to reference almost any part of any XML document without access control restrictions, whereas with SQL, a "user" (which is a term undefined in the XPath/XML context) may be restricted to certain tables, columns or queries. [1]

Simple XPath Injection

Before you can understand what Blind XPath Injection is, you must first have a basic understanding of Simple XPath Injection. So, lets suppose an application includes the following ASP.NET and C# source code:

 ...
 XmlDocument XmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
 XmlDoc.Load("...");
 ...
 XPathNavigator nav = XmlDoc.CreateNavigator();
 XPathExpression expr = nav.Compile("string(//user[name/text()='"+UserID.Text+
    "' and password/text()='"+Password.Text+
    "']/account/text())");
 String account=Convert.ToString(nav.Evaluate(expr));
 if (account=="")
 {
 // Login failed - UserUD and password pair could not be found in the XML document 
 ...
 }
 else
 {
 // Login succeeded - UserID and Password validated
 ...
 }

Based on the way this sample code is written, an attacker could try to inject an XPath expression into the UserID text field. For example, the attacker could enter the following text into the UserID text field (just like with SQL injection):

' or 1=1 or ='

If this entry is not handled properly by the application, then the application will return the first account number in the XML document. If that occurs, the attacker will be logged in as the first user listed in the XML document.

Blind XPath Injection

Using Blind XPath Injection, an attacker can extract a complete XML document for XPath querying without prior knowledge of the query. The attacker can access the entire XML "database" used in the XPath query which can be powerful against sites that use XPath queries (and XML "databases") for authentication, searching and other uses.

Examples

Related Threats

Related Attacks

Related Vulnerabilities

Related Countermeasures