Whats meaning of where false; in SQL query - sql

I came across one SQL query in sqitch db schema management tool which is as follows:
BEGIN;
select subject , comment , timestamp
from tutorial.video
where false;
ROLLBACK;
Above query is part of verify strategy; What is interpretation or application of where false; in above query?

It is a where condition to be used when the query should not return any result.
Some DBMS supporting boolean values, Postgres for example, are used to work with that instead of the classic where 1=1.
Basically then, where false is the same of where 1=0.

As far as I can tell it's to make you always get back 0 results.
Same as doing something like where 1=0

Related

Suppress result sets from trigger

I have a sql statement that first updates, then selects:
UPDATE myTable
SET field1=#someValue
WHERE field2=#someValue2
SELECT 1 returnValue
The process that consumes the reults of this statement is expecting a single result set, simple enough.
The problem arises because an update trigger was added to the table that produces a result set, i.e. it selects like so:
SELECT t_field1, t_field2, t_field3 FROM t_table
The obvious solution is to split up the statments. Unfortunatley, the real world implementation of this is complex and to be avoided if possible. The trigger is also nessecary and cannot be disabled.
Is there a way to supress the results from the update, returning only the value from the select statement?
The ability to return result sets from triggers is deprecated in SQL Server 2012 and will be removed in a future version (maybe even in SQL Server 2016, but probably in the next version). Change your trigger to return the data in some other way. If it is needed just for debugging, use PRINT instead of SELECT. If it is needed for some other reasons, insert the data into a temporary table and perform the SELECT from the calling procedure (only when needed).

How to demonstrate SQL injection in where clause?

I want to demonstrate the insecurity of some webservices that we have. These send unsanitized user input to an Oracle database Select statements.
SQL injection on SELECT statements is possible (through the WHERE clause), however I am having a hard time to demonstrate it as the same parameter gets placed in other queries as well during the same webservice call.
E.g:
' or client_id = 999'--
will exploit the first query but as the same WS request calls runs other SQL SELECTs, it will return an oracle error on the next query because the client_id is referred to by an alias in the second table.
I am looking to find something more convincing rather than just having an ORA error returned such as managing to drop a table in the process. However I do not think this is possible from a Select statement.
Any ideas how I can cause some data to change, or maybe get sensitive data to be included as part of an ORA error?
It's not very easy to change data, but it's still possible. Function that created with pragma autonomous_transaction can contain dml and may be called in where. For instance,
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION test_funct return int
IS
pragma autonomous_transaction;
BEGIN
DELETE FROM test_del;
commit;
return 0;
end;
-- and then
SELECT null from dual where test_funct()=1;
Another option you try creating huge subquery in WHERE which in turn may cause huge performance issue on server.
You do not need a custom function, you can use a sub-query:
" or client_id = (SELECT 999 FROM secret_table WHERE username = 'Admin' AND password_hash = '0123456789ABCD')"
If the query succeeds then you know that:
There is a table called secret_table that can be seen by the user executing this query (even if there is not a user interface that would typically be used to directly interact with that table);
That it has the columns username and password_hash;
That there is a user called Admin; and
That the admin user has a password that hashes to 0123456789ABCD.
You can repeat this and map the structure of the entire database and check for any values in the database.

Detect if SQL statement is correct

Question: Is there any way to detect if an SQL statement is syntactically correct?
Explanation:
I have a very complex application, which, at some point, need very specific (and different) processing for different cases.
The solution was to have a table where there is a record for each condition, and an SQL command that is to be executed.
That table is not accessible to normal users, only to system admins who define those cases when a new special case occurs. So far, a new record was added directly to the table.
However, from time to time there was typos, and the SQL was malformed, causing issues.
What I want to accomplish is to create a UI for managing that module, where to let admins to type the SQL command, and validate it before save.
My idea was to simply run the statement in a throw block and then capture the result (exception, if any), but I'm wondering of there is a more unobtrusive approach.
Any suggestion on this validation?
Thanks
PS. I'm aware of risk of SQL injection here, but it's not the case - the persons who have access to this are strictly controlled, and they are DBA or developers - so the risk of SQL injection here is the same as the risk to having access to Enterprise Manager
You can use SET PARSEONLY ON at the top of the query. Keep in mind that this will only check if the query is syntactically correct, and will not catch things like misspelled tables, insufficient permissions, etc.
Looking at the page here, you can modify the stored procedure to take a parameter:
CREATE PROC TestValid #stmt NVARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
IF EXISTS (
SELECT 1 FROM sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set(#stmt, NULL, 0)
WHERE error_message IS NOT NULL
AND error_number IS NOT NULL
AND error_severity IS NOT NULL
AND error_state IS NOT NULL
AND error_type IS NOT NULL
AND error_type_desc IS NOT NULL )
BEGIN
SELECT error_message
FROM sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set(#stmt, NULL, 0)
WHERE column_ordinal = 0
END
END
GO
This will return an error if one exists and nothing otherwise.

Do I need to perform a SELECT query after executing a Query to modify my record(s) in order to view the changed results?

Each time I perform a query (INSERT, DELETE,UPDATE). After Do I need to do Select * From Table, so my info can be seen on the Grid control?
For example:
UniQuery1 is my dataset.
I'm using a TDBADvListView control.
UniQuery1.Close;
UniQuery1.SQL.Clear;
SQL_QUERY:= 'insert into ListaCamiones(Tablilla,Marca,Modelo,Color) Values ('
+QuotedStr(a1)+','+
QuotedStr(a2)+','+
QuotedStr(a3)+','+
QuotedStr(a4)+')';
UniQuery1.SQL.Text := SQL_QUERY;
UniQuery1.Execute;
Do I need to do, Select * From ListaCamiones;
So I can see the information back on my TDBADvListView?
The answer is both yes and no!
Yes in that you do have to perform a SELECT query again in order to aggregate the modified recordset, no in that you don't have to perform the query as a separate execution.
If you append a semicolon at the end of your INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE query string, and immediately follow that by the desired SELECT query, your call to Execute will simultainiously update the records and aggregate the updated recordset for display.
Additionally, I would change the way you're building your SQL string too!
const
INSERT_QUERY_STRING = 'INSERT INTO ListaCaminoes(Tablilla, Marca, Modelo, Color) VALUES ("%s", "%s", "%s", "%s"); SELECT * FROM ListaCaminoes';
// Now inside your method
UniQuery1.SQL.Text := Format(INSERT_QUERY_STRING, [a1, a2, a3, a4]);
UniQuery1.Execute;
Hope it helps!
In general, yes, because in my experience when you make database changes via SQL statements:
no database component automatically refreshes the query,
no database can refresh the data in your application when the data
has changed in the database.
I recommend that you use a separate query component (UniQuery2) to execute your SQL statement. The you can use the ReQuery method of your Query to re-execute your original query (UniQuery1). Depending on the database components you are using, your local cursor may be reset.
Alternately you can Append/Insert to add records and Edit to change records of UniQuery1. This avoids the need to re-execute your original query because the changes are added to the dataset records buffered locally by the Query component. But, re-executing the query is necessary to get records that were added/edited by other users since your query was last executed.
If you just inserted the Information to the Database you have got it already!
In some SQL-Variants (in mySQL I am shure) you can have the command "insert_id()" from the API, that returns the AUTO_INCREMENT - value of the last inserted Dataset.
If you just want to get this ID, it is the way to go (on mySQL, like I said), but if you want to have other data you have to Query it again. In a combined query (like posted before) or in two seperate queries.
Glad to help!

check select statement is valid or not in c#.net

i want to check select statement(string) is valid or not in c#.net, if select statement is right then retrieve data and fill dropdown list box else drop down should be empty
How often would the select statement be invalid? Seems like a simple try/catch block around the execution of the SQL might be sufficient.
As an aside, I hope you aren't making an app that would allow someone to type in arbitrary SQL into a box which you would then execute...
One approach which covers most scenarios is to execute the SQL with SET FMTONLY ON
e.g.
SET FMTONLY ON;
SELECT SomeField FROM ExampleQuery
From BOL, SET FMTONLY :
Returns only metadata to the client.
Can be used to test the format of the
response without actually running the
query.query.
That will error if the query is invalid. You can also check the result to determine what the schema of the resultset that is returned would be (i.e. no schema = not a SELECT statement).
Update:
In general terms when dealing with SQL that you want to protect against SQL injection there are other things you should be thinking about:
Avoid dynamic sql (concatenating user-entered values into an SQL string to be executed). Use parameterised SQL instead.
Encapsulate the query as a nested query. e.g.
SELECT * FROM (SELECT Something FROM ADynamicQueryThatsBeenGenerated) x
So if the query contains multiple commands, this would result in an error. i.e. this would result in an invalid query when encapsulated as a nested query:
SELECT SomethingFrom FROM MyTable;TRUNCATE TABLE MyTable