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The public administration portal and SQL injection for beginners and beyond


The public administration portal has already attracted plenty of
 commentary, so this article caught my eye, Selected aspects of implementing the State Information Policy
 by Alois Vitásek (originally linked on jAblok.cZ, 24 November 2003, An older SQL injection).
 Under that innocent-looking article, you’ll find a description of how a simple change to the URL could modify the server’s SQL query. I’ll just add that there’s no limit to the imagination, as the author showed.

The bug was fixed promptly, but for 3.5 million crowns from the public purse, I’d 
 expect much better security. The developers’ explanation doesn’t change that. 
 “…the component for checking input parameters contained a logic error.” I’m not sure what 
 I’m supposed to make of “logic error,” but a security hole like that smells bad to me. 
 I wonder what other Easter eggs the portal will bring us…

Medium version

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