Software Engineering Institute

The Esri ArcGIS server version 10.1 contains a blind SQL injection vulnerability (CWE-89) for REST service queries. The where form field when constructing a query does not properly sanitize SQL commands from the input.

Proof-of-Concept:
http://<FQDN/IP>:6080/arcgis/rest/services/<SERVICE WITH QUERY SUPPORT>/query?f=json&where=featured%3Dtrue&returnGeometry=true&spatialRel=esriSpatialRelIntersects

A remote authenticated attacker may be able to run a subset of SQL commands against the back-end database.

Apply an Update

Esri released an update to ArcGIS Server 10.1 Service Pack 1. If you cannot patch, please consider the following workarounds.

Disable the query

The query operation may be disabled via ArcGIS Manager for each service.

Restrict access

As a general good security practice, only allow connections from trusted hosts and networks. Note that restricting access does not prevent SQLi attacks since the attack comes as an SQL request from a legitimate user's host. Restricting access would prevent an attacker from accessing a web interface using stolen credentials from a blocked network location.