


Can SQL Injection Bypass `mysql_real_escape_string()` Due to Character Encoding Issues?
Jan 25, 2025 pm 09:22 PMUsing character encoding issues to bypass mysql_real_escape_string()
’s SQL injection
Although the mysql_real_escape_string()
function protects against SQL injection, it may be bypassed under certain circumstances.
Consider the following PHP code:
$login = mysql_real_escape_string(GetFromPost('login')); $password = mysql_real_escape_string(GetFromPost('password')); $sql = "SELECT * FROM table WHERE login='$login' AND password='$password'";
This code appears to be safe, but it can be exploited due to edge cases in character set encoding.
Attack method:
The attack relies on the following steps:
- Set character set: Select an encoding (e.g., gbk) where the same sequence of bytes represents both non-ASCII characters and ASCII backslash ('').
- Constructing the payload: Use a carefully constructed payload that contains invalid multibyte characters, ensuring that its last byte represents an ASCII backslash.
-
calls
mysql_real_escape_string()
: The client thinks the connection is using a different character set (e.g., latin1), somysql_real_escape_string()
inserts a backslash before the single quote, resulting in a syntactically valid string. - Submit query: The escaped payload becomes part of the SQL statement, allowing the attacker to bypass intended protections.
How it works:
The key problem is that the character set expected by the server does not match what the client thinks it is. Although mysql_real_escape_string()
is escaped according to the connection encoding set by the client, it will treat invalid multi-byte characters as single bytes in some cases, including cases where SET NAMES
is used instead of mysql_set_charset()
.
Consequences:
This attack can bypass PDO's simulated prepared statements even if simulated prepared statements are disabled.
Remedy:
Using a non-vulnerable character set, such as utf8mb4 or utf8, can mitigate this problem. Enabling NO_BACKSLASH_ESCAPES SQL mode also provides protection.
Safe example:
Always set the charset correctly using mysql_set_charset()
or PDO's DSN charset parameter. Real prepared statements in MySQLi are also immune to this attack.
Conclusion:
While mysql_real_escape_string()
generally provides strong protection, it is important to be aware of potential edge cases like this to ensure complete protection against SQL injection.
The above is the detailed content of Can SQL Injection Bypass `mysql_real_escape_string()` Due to Character Encoding Issues?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

Hot AI Tools

Undress AI Tool
Undress images for free

Undresser.AI Undress
AI-powered app for creating realistic nude photos

AI Clothes Remover
Online AI tool for removing clothes from photos.

Clothoff.io
AI clothes remover

Video Face Swap
Swap faces in any video effortlessly with our completely free AI face swap tool!

Hot Article

Hot Tools

Notepad++7.3.1
Easy-to-use and free code editor

SublimeText3 Chinese version
Chinese version, very easy to use

Zend Studio 13.0.1
Powerful PHP integrated development environment

Dreamweaver CS6
Visual web development tools

SublimeText3 Mac version
God-level code editing software (SublimeText3)

Hot Topics

GTID (Global Transaction Identifier) ??solves the complexity of replication and failover in MySQL databases by assigning a unique identity to each transaction. 1. It simplifies replication management, automatically handles log files and locations, allowing slave servers to request transactions based on the last executed GTID. 2. Ensure consistency across servers, ensure that each transaction is applied only once on each server, and avoid data inconsistency. 3. Improve troubleshooting efficiency. GTID includes server UUID and serial number, which is convenient for tracking transaction flow and accurately locate problems. These three core advantages make MySQL replication more robust and easy to manage, significantly improving system reliability and data integrity.

MySQL main library failover mainly includes four steps. 1. Fault detection: Regularly check the main library process, connection status and simple query to determine whether it is downtime, set up a retry mechanism to avoid misjudgment, and can use tools such as MHA, Orchestrator or Keepalived to assist in detection; 2. Select the new main library: select the most suitable slave library to replace it according to the data synchronization progress (Seconds_Behind_Master), binlog data integrity, network delay and load conditions, and perform data compensation or manual intervention if necessary; 3. Switch topology: Point other slave libraries to the new master library, execute RESETMASTER or enable GTID, update the VIP, DNS or proxy configuration to

The steps to connect to the MySQL database are as follows: 1. Use the basic command format mysql-u username-p-h host address to connect, enter the username and password to log in; 2. If you need to directly enter the specified database, you can add the database name after the command, such as mysql-uroot-pmyproject; 3. If the port is not the default 3306, you need to add the -P parameter to specify the port number, such as mysql-uroot-p-h192.168.1.100-P3307; In addition, if you encounter a password error, you can re-enter it. If the connection fails, check the network, firewall or permission settings. If the client is missing, you can install mysql-client on Linux through the package manager. Master these commands

IndexesinMySQLimprovequeryspeedbyenablingfasterdataretrieval.1.Theyreducedatascanned,allowingMySQLtoquicklylocaterelevantrowsinWHEREorORDERBYclauses,especiallyimportantforlargeorfrequentlyqueriedtables.2.Theyspeedupjoinsandsorting,makingJOINoperation

InnoDB is MySQL's default storage engine because it outperforms other engines such as MyISAM in terms of reliability, concurrency performance and crash recovery. 1. It supports transaction processing, follows ACID principles, ensures data integrity, and is suitable for key data scenarios such as financial records or user accounts; 2. It adopts row-level locks instead of table-level locks to improve performance and throughput in high concurrent write environments; 3. It has a crash recovery mechanism and automatic repair function, and supports foreign key constraints to ensure data consistency and reference integrity, and prevent isolated records and data inconsistencies.

MySQL's default transaction isolation level is RepeatableRead, which prevents dirty reads and non-repeatable reads through MVCC and gap locks, and avoids phantom reading in most cases; other major levels include read uncommitted (ReadUncommitted), allowing dirty reads but the fastest performance, 1. Read Committed (ReadCommitted) ensures that the submitted data is read but may encounter non-repeatable reads and phantom readings, 2. RepeatableRead default level ensures that multiple reads within the transaction are consistent, 3. Serialization (Serializable) the highest level, prevents other transactions from modifying data through locks, ensuring data integrity but sacrificing performance;

MySQL transactions follow ACID characteristics to ensure the reliability and consistency of database transactions. First, atomicity ensures that transactions are executed as an indivisible whole, either all succeed or all fail to roll back. For example, withdrawals and deposits must be completed or not occur at the same time in the transfer operation; second, consistency ensures that transactions transition the database from one valid state to another, and maintains the correct data logic through mechanisms such as constraints and triggers; third, isolation controls the visibility of multiple transactions when concurrent execution, prevents dirty reading, non-repeatable reading and fantasy reading. MySQL supports ReadUncommitted and ReadCommi.

To add MySQL's bin directory to the system PATH, it needs to be configured according to the different operating systems. 1. Windows system: Find the bin folder in the MySQL installation directory (the default path is usually C:\ProgramFiles\MySQL\MySQLServerX.X\bin), right-click "This Computer" → "Properties" → "Advanced System Settings" → "Environment Variables", select Path in "System Variables" and edit it, add the MySQLbin path, save it and restart the command prompt and enter mysql--version verification; 2.macOS and Linux systems: Bash users edit ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_
