Chapter 5. Oracle and PL/SQL
PL/SQL is a programming language for Oracle database servers. The PL in the acronym stands for Procedural Language, a fully featured programming language with built-in SQL capabilities and database objects such as packages, procedures, functions, triggers, and types — all written in PL/SQL. Because so many Oracle security issues relate in some way to PL/SQL, it is crucial for the Oracle security expert to understand PL/SQL. One of the key threats to the security of Oracle database servers are bugs in the default PL/SQL packages, triggers, and types that are shipped with the database. There have been numerous such bugs in the past and even today several are still found. Most of these bugs fall into the SQL injection class of vulnerabilities, which can allow a low-privilege user to gain full control over the database with DBA privileges. This chapter covers SQL injection, and to understand the risks it poses, we first need to examine the security model of PL/SQL code when it executes
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