Definition
Analyzing database queries to detect [SQL Injection](https://capec.mitre.org/data/definitions/66.html).
How it works
Some implementations use software hooks to intercept function calls related to database query operations. Other implementations might intercept or collect network traffic. The database query string is then extracted and analyzed with various methods, for example:
- Detecting specific administrative SQL commands
- Anomalous sequences of commands when compared to a statistical baseline.
- Anomalous commands for a given user role.
Considerations
Some capabilities sanitize queries before permitting them to be transmitted to the database. This incurs risks such altering data in an undesired way or breaking application functionality.
Implementation perspective
Database Query String Analysis should be treated as a technical defensive capability rather than a product checkbox. In practice, teams should define the protected scope, the conditions under which the technique acts, and the observable evidence that demonstrates the intended behavior. For this technique, likely engineering context includes Database Query.
Use the technique to identify suspicious, unauthorized, or abnormal activity through observable evidence and repeatable analysis.
Questions to ask
- Which events, states, or artifacts must be observed for the analysis to work?
- What analytic logic, threshold, comparison, or signature turns observations into a finding?
- How are expected false positives, blind spots, and environmental variations documented?
- Who receives the result, and what action is expected when the technique produces a finding?
Evidence and validation
- Telemetry and data-source configuration records
- Analytic logic, thresholds, signatures, and version history
- Test cases demonstrating expected positive and negative results
- Alert, triage, escalation, and tuning records
Common failure patterns
- Required telemetry is missing, delayed, or transformed in a way that invalidates the analysis.
- The technique produces alerts without an accountable triage and response process.
- Detection coverage is claimed from product deployment without testing the relevant analytic behavior.
This implementation perspective is original Bare Metal Cyber educational content. It does not replace the official D3FEND definition or establish that a specific product implements the technique.
Technique hierarchy
Top-level family
Parent techniques
Direct child techniques
None listed at this level.
Artifacts and ontology entities
These relationships describe how D3FEND connects a defensive technique to artifacts or other ontology entities. They describe graph semantics, not a product certification.
Explicit technique relationships
Show inferred artifact relationship paths (1)
Offensive-technique relationships
These relationships are generated from D3FEND graph paths and are explicitly experimental. They should be treated as hypotheses for defensive analysis—not as proof that the technique prevents, detects, or removes an offensive behavior.
ATT&CK Enterprise (1)
Authoritative sources
- Open this technique on the official D3FEND website ↗
- Open the official ontology resources ↗
- System and method for internet security ↗Cylance Inc · Derek A. Soeder · PatentReference
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