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SELECT Code_execution FROM * USING SQLite: Eggheads Lift the Lid on DB Security Hi-jinks

posted by Fnord666 on Monday August 12 2019, @12:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the yes-it's-defcon-week dept.

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for AnonymousCoward

SELECT code_execution FROM * USING SQLite: Eggheads lift the lid on DB security hi-jinks

At the DEF CON hacking conference in Las Vegas on Saturday, infosec gurus from Check Point are scheduled to describe a technique for exploiting SQLite, a database used in applications across every major desktop and mobile operating system, to gain arbitrary code execution.

In a technical summary provided to The Register ahead of their presentation, Check Point's Omer Gull sets out how he and his colleague Omri Herscovici developed techniques referred to as Query Hijacking and Query Oriented Programming, in order to execute malicious code on a system. Query Oriented Programming is similar in a way to return oriented programming in that it relies on assembling malicious code from blocks of CPU instructions in a program's RAM. The difference is that QOP is done with SQL queries.

[...] It must be stressed, though, that to pull off Check Point's techniques to hack a given application via SQLite, you need file-system access permissions to alter that app's SQLite database file, and that isn't always possible. If you can change a program's database file, you can probably get, or already have achieved, code execution on the system by some other means anyway.

Nonetheless, it's a fascinating look into modern methods of code exploitation, and a neat set of discoveries.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by rigrig on Monday August 12 2019, @04:03PM (2 children)

    by rigrig (5129) <soylentnews@tubul.net> on Monday August 12 2019, @04:03PM (#879257) Homepage

    Instead of changing database files, I'm sure there are a bunch of applications that use a SQLite database as their file format, and are happy to open email attachments for you...

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 12 2019, @08:48PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 12 2019, @08:48PM (#879372)

    Well, here is a short list of projects, that I know of, that use SQLite as their file format:

    Apple, almost everywhere
    Firefox, browser
    Thunderbird, mail client
    Lightroom, image editing software
    Adobe AIR, Flash as local apps
    Dropbox, file sync utility
    Evernote, note and file sync
    Skype, communication software
    QuickBooks, accounting software
    TurboTax, tax software
    rpm, the RPM package manager

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 13 2019, @01:55AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 13 2019, @01:55AM (#879449)

      KODI