OBJECTIVE 04 — SQL INJECTION EVASION TECHNIQUES


CEH CORE STATEMENT (MEMORIZE)

Item Memorize
SQL Injection Evasion Techniques used by attackers to bypass security filters, firewalls, and input validation mechanisms

WHY EVASION IS REQUIRED

Reason
Web Application Firewalls (WAFs)
Input validation
Blacklist filters
Signature-based detection

MEMORY HOOK:
Blocked ≠ Secure


CLASSIFICATION OF EVASION TECHNIQUES (EXAM MUST)

Category
Encoding techniques
Case manipulation
Comment injection
Whitespace manipulation
Operator substitution
Logical obfuscation

1. ENCODING TECHNIQUES

PURPOSE

Purpose
Bypass input filters by encoding payloads

TYPES OF ENCODING

Encoding Type Description
URL encoding Encodes characters as % values
Hex encoding Uses hexadecimal values
Unicode encoding Encodes characters using Unicode
Double encoding Encodes already encoded data

EXAM EXAMPLES (RECOGNITION)

Normal Encoded
%27
space %20
OR %4F%52

MEMORY HOOK:
Encoded ≠ detected


2. CASE MANIPULATION

PURPOSE

Purpose
Bypass case-sensitive filters

TECHNIQUES

Technique
Uppercase keywords
Lowercase keywords
Mixed-case keywords

EXAM EXAMPLES

Keyword Variation
SELECT SeLeCt
UNION UnIoN
OR oR

MEMORY HOOK:
Case changes bypass weak filters


3. COMMENT INJECTION

PURPOSE

Purpose
Break query logic and ignore remaining SQL

COMMENT TYPES (REPEAT – EXAM IMPORTANT)

Comment DB Support
Most DBs
# MySQL
/* */ All DBs

EXAM PAYLOADS

Payload
’ OR 1=1–
’ OR 1=1#

MEMORY HOOK:
Comment = query terminator


4. WHITESPACE MANIPULATION

PURPOSE

Purpose
Bypass space-based filtering

TECHNIQUES

Technique
Replace space with comments
Replace space with tabs
Replace space with newline

EXAM EXAMPLES

Normal Manipulated
SELECT * FROM SELECT/**/FROM

MEMORY HOOK:
No space ≠ no SQL


5. OPERATOR SUBSTITUTION

PURPOSE

Purpose
Replace blocked operators with equivalents

SUBSTITUTIONS

Original Substitute
= LIKE
AND &&
OR  

MEMORY HOOK:
Same logic, different syntax


6. LOGICAL OBFUSCATION

PURPOSE

Purpose
Hide malicious logic

TECHNIQUES

Technique
Arithmetic expressions
Boolean expressions
Nested queries

EXAM EXAMPLES

Original Obfuscated
1=1 2-1=1
TRUE NOT FALSE

MEMORY HOOK:
Math hides truth


7. CHAR() AND ASCII FUNCTIONS

PURPOSE

Purpose
Build strings without quotes

DB-SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS

Database Function AJ
MySQL CHAR()
MSSQL CHAR()
Oracle CHR()

EXAM EXAMPLE

Payload
CHAR(65,66,67)

MEMORY HOOK:
No quotes, no filter


8. CONCATENATION EVASION

PURPOSE

Purpose
Break keywords into parts

TECHNIQUES

Technique
CONCAT()
+ operator
 

EXAM EXAMPLE

Keyword Obfuscated
UNION UN

MEMORY HOOK:
Split keyword survives filter


9. SQL INJECTION EVASION SUMMARY (EXAM GOLD)

Technique Bypasses
Encoding Signature filters
Case manipulation Case-sensitive filters
Comments Query parsing
Whitespace tricks Space filters
Operator substitution Keyword filters
Obfuscation Pattern detection