CODEWITHSUNDEEP
mysqlsqlsyntaxcomments
munchybunch
munchybunch

Reputation: 6153

What does # mean in SQL?

Does anyone know what something like OR 1# means in the context of MySQL injection?

Upvotes: 22

Views: 28295

Answers (2)

BoltClock
BoltClock

Reputation: 723448

It is MySQL's version of the line comment delimiter. In standard SQL, the line comment delimiter is --.

-- This is a standard SQL comment.
# This is a MySQL comment.

So in the context of SQL injection, if the attacker knows you're using MySQL he may use it to abruptly terminate the malicious SQL statement, causing MySQL to ignore whatever is behind the # and execute only the stuff that comes before it. This is only effective against single-line SQL statements, however. Here's an example:

Input:

Username: fake' OR 1#
Password: pass

Resultant SQL:

SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = 'fake' OR 1#' AND password = 'pass'

Which is executed as this, which returns every row:

SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = 'fake' OR 1

Upvotes: 55

Xavier Poinas
Xavier Poinas

Reputation: 19733

This is the start of a comment. It means that anything after that will be skipped by the parser.

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions