What is adware?
Adware is a type of software that displays unwanted advertising on a computer. It is typically installed without the user’s knowledge, and can be difficult to remove. Adware can slow down a computer, and make it difficult to use. It is usually not considered a virus or malware, because it does not self-replicate or damage your computer. However, some adware is designed to track your web browsing habits, and can send this information to third parties without your permission.
Most adware is bundled with other free software that you download from the Internet. For example, many free games and music players come with adware. When you install the free software, the adware is also installed. Adware can also be installed by websites that display popup ads. When you visit these websites, a popup will appear that asks you to install the adware. If you click “OK”, the adware will be installed.
Adware is typically used to display advertising on your computer. The ads can be in the form of popup windows, banner ads, or video ads. Adware can also insert ads into the web pages that you visit. Some adware is designed to track your web browsing habits, and send this information to third parties. This information is used to target ads to you based on your interests.
Adware can be difficult to remove, because it is often installed without your knowledge. It can also be bundled with other software, making it even more difficult to remove. If you think you have adware on your computer, you can try to remove it using an anti-adware program. These programs are designed to scan your computer for adware and remove it.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adware
https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/adware
https://www.avg.com/en/signal/what-is-adwareReference
What is an SQL injection?
An SQL injection is a code injection technique used to attack data-driven applications in which malicious SQL statements are inserted into an entry field for execution (e.g. to dump the database contents to the attacker).
SQL injection must exploit a security vulnerability in an application’s software, for example, when user input is either incorrectly filtered for string literal escape characters embedded in SQL statements or user input is not strongly typed and thereby unexpectedly executed. SQL injection is mostly known to be used in web applications because they are the most common type of application software. However, SQL injection can also be used in other types of software.
The consequences of a successful SQL injection attack can be devastating. Depending on the privileges associated with the application user account that is being exploited, an attacker can read data from the database, modify database data (Insert/Update/Delete), execute administration operations on the database (such as shutdown the DBMS), recover the content of a given file present on the DBMS file system or write files into the file system, and in some cases issue commands to the operating system. Some SQL injection attacks can even lead to a complete compromise of the server on which the database is running.
In order to successfully carry out an SQL injection attack, an attacker must first find a vulnerable input field on a web page. Once a vulnerable input field is found, the attacker then crafts a malicious SQL statement that is injected into the input field. If the input field is not properly filtered, the malicious SQL statement will be executed by the database server.
Depending on the nature of the SQL injection flaw, an attacker can execute arbitrary SQL commands, read sensitive data from the database, modify database data, or even execute operating system commands on the server.
Most SQL injection attacks are carried out by submitting form input that contains malicious SQL code in the form of a carefully crafted SQL statement. However, SQL injection can also be performed using other attack vectors, such as via HTTP GET or POST parameters, cookies, or even directly in the URL.
In order to prevent SQL injection attacks, web applications must carefully validate and filter all user input. Input that is not properly filtered can allow attackers to inject malicious SQL code that can be executed by the database server.
There are several methods that can be used to filter user input, including but not limited to:
– Whitelisting: Only allow input that matches a list of known safe values.
– Blacklisting: Disallow input that matches a list of known malicious values.
– Escaping: Encode all input characters in a way that prevents them from being interpreted as part of an SQL statement.
– Parameterized queries: Use placeholders for all input values, so that the input is treated as data and not as part of an SQL statement.
Visit malwarezero.org to learn more about the most dangerous computer virus. Disclaimer: We used this website as a reference for this blog post.