Finding & Exploiting Time-based Blind SQL injection

blind sql injection

Blind SQL (Structured Query Language) injection is a type of SQL Injection attack that asks the database true or false questions and determines the answer based on the application’s response. This attack is often used when the web application is configured to show generic error messages but has not mitigated the code that is vulnerable to SQL injection.

When an attacker exploits SQL injection, sometimes the web application displays error messages from the database complaining that the SQL Query’s syntax is incorrect. Blind SQL injection is nearly identical to normal SQL Injection, the only difference being the way the data is retrieved from the database. When the database does not output data to the web page, an attacker is forced to steal data by asking the database a series of true or false questions. This makes exploiting the SQL Injection vulnerability more difficult, but not impossible. __OWASP

Blinds are divided into:

  • Boolean-based (content-based) Blind SQLi
  • Time-based Blind SQLi
  • Out-of-band SQLi

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