Automating SQL injection attacks
Sqlmap is an automatic SQL injection tool that allows a penetration tester to easily discover SQL injection-based vulnerabilities on a web application. The tool also allows you to perform exploitation attacks, manipulate records, and retrieve data from the backend database from vulnerable web applications. Overall, during a web application penetration testing exercise, using automation can help you save a lot of time when you're looking for security flaws during an assessment.
In this section, you will learn how to use Sqlmap to easily identify SQL injection flaws within a vulnerable web application and retrieve sensitive data.
Part 1 – discovering databases
To get started with this exercise, please follow these steps:
- Power on both your Kali Linux and OWASP BWA virtual machines. When the OWASP BWA virtual machine boots, the banner will provide its IP address and user credentials, as shown here: