Input Validation Cheat Sheet

We sometimes carelessly throw characters up and about in an attempt to find a gem. This paper covers miscellaneous injection characters and their meanings when applied to web application testing.

Character(s)

Details

NULL or null

Often produces interesting error messages as the web application is expecting a value. It can also help us determine if the backend is a PL/SQL gateway.

{' , " , ; , <!}

Breaks an SQL string or query; used for SQL, XPath and XML Injection tests.

{– , = , + , "}

These characters are used to craft SQL Injection queries.

{‘ , &, ! , ¦ , < , >}

Used to find command execution vulnerabilities.

"><script>alert(1)</script>

Used for basic Cross-Site Scripting Checks.

{%0d , %0a}

Carriage Return Line Feed (new line); all round bad.

{%7f , %ff}

byte-length overflows; maximum 7- and 8-bit values.

{-1, other}

Integer and underflow vulnerabilities.

Ax1024+

Overflow vulnerabilities.

{%n , %x , %s}

Testing for format string vulnerabilities.

../

Directory Traversal Vulnerabilities.

{% , _, *}

Wildcard characters can sometimes present DoS issues or information disclosure.

These characters can be represented in many different ways (i.e. Unicode). It is important to understand this when restricting input to these character sets.

<a href="http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_entities.asp">w3schools</a>