SQL injection attack rule statement - Amazon WAF, Amazon Firewall Manager, and Amazon Shield Advanced
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SQL injection attack rule statement

This section explains what a SQL injection rule statement is and how it works.

An SQL injection rule statement inspects for malicious SQL code. Attackers insert malicious SQL code into web requests in order to do things like modify your database or extract data from it.

Rule statement characteristics

Nestable – You can nest this statement type.

WCUs – The base cost depends on the sensitivity level setting for the rule statement: Low costs 20 and High costs 30.

If you use the request component All query parameters, add 10 WCUs. If you use the request component JSON body, double the base cost WCUs. For each Text transformation that you apply, add 10 WCUs.

This statement type operates on a web request component, and requires the following request component settings:

  • Request component – The part of the web request to inspect, for example, a query string or the body.

    Warning

    If you inspect the request components Body, JSON body, Headers, or Cookies, read about the limitations on how much content Amazon WAF can inspect at Oversize web request components in Amazon WAF.

    For information about web request components, see Adjusting rule statement settings in Amazon WAF.

  • Optional text transformations – Transformations that you want Amazon WAF to perform on the request component before inspecting it. For example, you could transform to lowercase or normalize white space. If you specify more than one transformation, Amazon WAF processes them in the order listed. For information, see Using text transformations in Amazon WAF.

Additionally, this statement requires the following setting:

  • Sensitivity level – This setting tunes the sensitivity of the SQL injection match criteria. The options are LOW and HIGH. The default setting is LOW.

    The HIGH setting detects more SQL injection attacks, and is the recommended setting. Due to the higher sensitivity, this setting generates more false positives, especially if your web requests typically contain unusual strings. During your web ACL testing and tuning, you might need to do more work to mitigate false positives. For information, see Testing and tuning your Amazon WAF protections.

    The lower setting provides less stringent SQL injection detection, which also results in fewer false positives. LOW can be a better choice for resources that have other protections against SQL injection attacks or that have a low tolerance for false positives.

Where to find this rule statement

  • Rule builder on the console – For Match type, choose Attack match condition > Contains SQL injection attacks.

  • APISqliMatchStatement