3 ms·

This. I really don't get why anyone in this day and age doesn't use parameterised queries. It's such a big security win and comes with such little programming

by imron 10y ago

This. I really don't get why anyone in this day and age doesn't use parameterised queries. It's such a big security win and comes with such little programming overhead that it boggles my mind to think people still use manual string escaping.

omgtehlion 10y ago
Not just security, but readability (in most languages) and performance gain also (in popular RDBMSes and drivers)
greenleafjacob 10y ago
In Postgres until 9.2, the query plan for prepared statements is fixed at prepare time rather than time of execution, so you might end up with worse query plans. It's worth noting that 9.1 is still the version in Ubuntu 12.04, it's only 14.04 that has 9.3.
- raverbashing 10y ago
  In which case different values would end up have a different query plan? NULL values?
  - ComodoHacker 10y ago
    Skewed distribution.
  - sixbrx 10y ago
    That's one of the main points of gathering statistics, so the query plan can depend on the values being queried. At least in Oracle, not sure about Postgres. For long running queries it can be a big win.
  - greenleafjacob 10y ago
    Here is an example [1] that just is a simple equality comparison on an indexed column falling back to a sequential table scan. [1] http://blog.endpoint.com/2014/04/custom-plans-prepared-statements-in.html http://blog.endpoint.com/2014/04/custom-plans-prepared-state...
- icebraining 10y ago
  It should be noted that Postgres offers a repository with the latests versions even for Ubuntu 12.04, so you don't need to upgrade the distro or compile PG yourself to use them.
- hultner 10y ago
  This have been an annoyance in many DBMS-engines, I have previously solved it with recompiles, either triggered or nightly/hourly.
- jldugger 10y ago
  > It's worth noting that 9.1 is still the version in Ubuntu 12.04, it's only 14.04 that has 9.3. And the most recent LTS, 16.04, has 9.5.
krapp 10y ago
People may use frameworks which sometimes default to concatenation, even when the ORM makes it look like they're using parameterized queries. People care more about convenience and fast iteration than security - concatenation is faster and easier, and insecure sites can still make money, so the incentives are on the side of fast, dirty code that works now rather than secure code that works later. People (this is especially true in the PHP world) may not even know parameterized queries exist.
- horizone 10y ago
  I too wish more people in the PHP world would use parameters, but alas, your second paragraph sums up the common mentality. If its still going to make money, why go to the effort? Personally I love sending a query with an object and just let the engine do the work. I see this sort of thing on a daily basis, but it's not from PHP developers but our "lead" Delphi developer. I've tried to convince him of the benefits of parameter based queries, but believes that it would be a performance hit (performance for him maybe, he'd have to struggle to learn something new).

by imron 10y ago

omgtehlion 10y ago

Not just security, but readability (in most languages) and performance gain also (in popular RDBMSes and drivers)

greenleafjacob 10y ago

In Postgres until 9.2, the query plan for prepared statements is fixed at prepare time rather than time of execution, so you might end up with worse query plans. It's worth noting that 9.1 is still the version in Ubuntu 12.04, it's only 14.04 that has 9.3.

raverbashing 10y ago
In which case different values would end up have a different query plan? NULL values?
- ComodoHacker 10y ago
  Skewed distribution.
- sixbrx 10y ago
  That's one of the main points of gathering statistics, so the query plan can depend on the values being queried. At least in Oracle, not sure about Postgres. For long running queries it can be a big win.
- greenleafjacob 10y ago
  Here is an example [1] that just is a simple equality comparison on an indexed column falling back to a sequential table scan. [1] http://blog.endpoint.com/2014/04/custom-plans-prepared-statements-in.html http://blog.endpoint.com/2014/04/custom-plans-prepared-state...
icebraining 10y ago
It should be noted that Postgres offers a repository with the latests versions even for Ubuntu 12.04, so you don't need to upgrade the distro or compile PG yourself to use them.
hultner 10y ago
This have been an annoyance in many DBMS-engines, I have previously solved it with recompiles, either triggered or nightly/hourly.
jldugger 10y ago
> It's worth noting that 9.1 is still the version in Ubuntu 12.04, it's only 14.04 that has 9.3. And the most recent LTS, 16.04, has 9.5.

krapp 10y ago

People may use frameworks which sometimes default to concatenation, even when the ORM makes it look like they're using parameterized queries. People care more about convenience and fast iteration than security - concatenation is faster and easier, and insecure sites can still make money, so the incentives are on the side of fast, dirty code that works now rather than secure code that works later. People (this is especially true in the PHP world) may not even know parameterized queries exist.

horizone 10y ago
I too wish more people in the PHP world would use parameters, but alas, your second paragraph sums up the common mentality. If its still going to make money, why go to the effort? Personally I love sending a query with an object and just let the engine do the work. I see this sort of thing on a daily basis, but it's not from PHP developers but our "lead" Delphi developer. I've tried to convince him of the benefits of parameter based queries, but believes that it would be a performance hit (performance for him maybe, he'd have to struggle to learn something new).