Sciextor

Code Injection

Code injection attacks are a type of cyberattack that involve injecting malicious code into an application.

The application then interprets or executes the code, affecting the performance and function of the application.

Code injection attacks typically exploit existing data vulnerabilities, such as insecure handling of data from untrusted sources

Some statistics on Code Injection are

• According to the Open Web Application Security Project, injection attacks, which include code injection, were the third most serious web application security risk in 2021. In the applications they tested, there were 274,000 occurrences of injection
• In 2008, 5.66% of all vulnerabilities reported that year were classified as code injection, the highest year on record. In 2015, this had decreased to 0.77%
• The average cost of a code injection attack is $4.2 million, which is 50% higher than the average cost of a data breach
• The most common types of code injection attacks are SQL injection (29%), PHP injection (23%), and OS command injection (21%)
• The most targeted industries by code injection attacks are software and technology (28%), manufacturing (16%), and healthcare (15%)

What can you do

• Avoid using eval(), setTimeout(), setInterval(), and new Function() in your JavaScript code. These functions can execute arbitrary code that may come from untrusted sources, such as user input or external requests. Instead, use safer alternatives, such as JSON.parse(), Promise, or arrow functions
• Use input validation and sanitization to check and filter the data that you receive from users or other sources. This can prevent malicious code from entering your application and causing harm. You can use regular expressions, whitelists, or libraries to validate and sanitize your input
• Use parameterized queries and prepared statements to interact with your database. This can prevent SQL injection attacks, which are a common type of code injection that target database-driven applications. Parameterized queries and prepared statements can separate the data from the query structure, making it harder for attackers to inject malicious SQL commands
• Use a Node.js security linter to check your code for common security issues and vulnerabilities. A security linter is a tool that can analyze your code and detect potential problems, such as code injection, insecure dependencies, or bad practices. You can use a security linter, such as ESLint, to enforce security rules and best practices in your code
• Use a static code analysis (SCA) tool to find and fix code injection issues in your code. A SCA tool is a tool that can scan your code and identify security flaws, such as code injection, cross-site scripting, or buffer overflow. You can use a SCA tool, such as Snyk, to detect and remediate code injection vulnerabilities in your code