Subject/Topic: How do I determine if versions of phpMyAdmin before 4.8.5 is SQL 
Injectable using sqlmap?

Good evening from Singapore,

Our customer (company name is Confidential/not disclosed) reported that their 
MySQL database has been found missing or was deleted a few times. They are 
using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Linux server with Apache2 Web Server, MySQL and PHP 
(LAMP).

We responded to these security incidents by changing the passwords of the 
regular user, root user, and MySQL database user root. We have also examined 
/var/log/auth.log and think that the hacker could not have come in through ssh 
or sftp over ssh. From /var/log/mysql/error.log, we can ascertain that the 
MySQL database has been deleted at certain timings. We have also found nothing 
abnormal after examining /var/log/apache2/access.log.

Even though we have secured the Ubuntu Linux server by changing passwords, the 
hacker was still able to delete our customer's MySQL database again and again. 
I have already proposed to install ModSecurity Open Source Web Application 
Firewall (WAF) to defend against web application attacks but my boss has told 
me to put that on hold at the moment. In fact, I have already deployed 
ModSecurity 2.9.0 on a Ubuntu 16.04 LTS *Testing* server and found that it 
actively detects and logs Nessus and sqlmap vulnerability scans in blocking 
mode.

Since we did not find any evidence that the hacker had breached our customer's 
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS production server through ssh or Teamviewer, we suspect that 
the hacker could have achieved it by SQL injection. I took the initiative of 
downloading and installing Nessus Professional 8.3.1 Trial version for Windows 
64-bit. The vulnerability scan report generated by Nessus Web Application Tests 
shows that our customer is using a version of phpMyAdmin prior to 4.8.5 which 
could be vulnerable to SQL injection using the designer feature.

Further research shows that I can use sqlmap to determine if phpMyAdmin is SQL 
injectable. I already have a Testing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Linux server with a 
Testing MySQL database and a Testing phpMyAdmin 4.8.4. I have purposely 
installed phpMyAdmin 4.8.4 because this version was reported to be vulnerable 
to SQL injection using the designer feature, and our customer is using a 
vulnerable version, according to CVE-2019-6798 ( 
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-6798 ). Then I proceeded to download 
and execute sqlmap on our Ubuntu Linux desktop against our Testing server.

No matter how many commands I try, sqlmap always report that phpMyAdmin 4.8.4 
is *NOT* SQL injectable. Perhaps I was using the wrong sqlmap commands all the 
time? The following is one of the many sqlmap commands I have used.

$ python sqlmap.py -u "https://www.EXAMPLE.com/phymyadmin/index.php?id=1"; 
--level=1 --dbms=mysql --sql-query="drop database"

Replace database by database name.

May I know what is the correct sqlmap command that I should use to determine 
that my Testing phpMyAdmin 4.8.4 is SQL injectable? I would like to know if I 
can successfully drop/delete the Testing database on our Testing server. If I 
can successfully drop/delete the Testing MySQL database using sqlmap, I would 
be able to conclude that the hacker must have carried out SQL injection to 
drop/delete the customer's database. I have already turned off the Testing 
ModSecurity Web Application Firewall on our Testing server to allow sqlmap to 
go through.

Please point me to any good tutorial on SQL injection using sqlmap. Maybe I do 
not understand SQL injection well enough. Our customer is also using a 
customised in-house inventory management system that relies on PHP application 
and MySQL database.

Would open source Snort Intrusion Detection System (IDS) and Intrusion 
Prevention System (IPS) be able to detect and block SQL injection as well?

Please advise.

Thank you very much.

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********************************************************************************************

Singaporean Mr. Turritopsis Dohrnii Teo En Ming's Academic
Qualifications as at 14 Feb 2019

[1] https://tdtemcerts.wordpress.com/

[2] https://tdtemcerts.blogspot.sg/

[3] https://www.scribd.com/user/270125049/Teo-En-Ming

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