Problems with Penetration Testing

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Nov 11, 2008

“A perfectly natural human response to this message is to
retreat and patch the software to stop that SQL syntax from being
injected into the Web application. The developers are likely to
write some logic that goes like: if (SQL syntax is present in an
input) disallow the input.

“Then, the pen test is repeated, the problem is resolved, and
everyone is happy. Right? Wrong.

“The problem with this approach is that it is almost always a
negative model, not a positive one. That is, the programmers will
naturally be drawn to checking a “blacklist” of banned
SQL syntax, and then disallowing the input. This type of negative
validation can invariably be broken by a determined adversary.”


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Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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