On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 4:49 PM, Stuart Dallas <stu...@3ft9.com> wrote:

>
> On 5 Oct 2011, at 00:45, Tommy Pham wrote:
>
> On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 4:11 PM, Stuart Dallas <stu...@3ft9.com> wrote:
>
>> On 5 Oct 2011, at 00:04, Mark Kelly wrote:
>>
>> > Hi.
>> >
>> > On Tuesday 04 Oct 2011 at 21:39 Stuart Dallas wrote:
>> >
>> >> http://stut.net/2011/09/15/mysql-real-escape-string-is-not-enough/
>> >
>> > Thanks. I followed this link through and read the full message (having
>> missed
>> > it the first time round), and while I find the idea of using base64 to
>> > sanitise text interesting I can also forsee a few difficulties:
>> >
>> > It would prevent anyone from accessing the database directly and getting
>> > meaningful results unless the en/decode is in triggers, or maybe stored
>> > procedures. No more one-off command-line queries.
>> >
>> > How would you search an encoded column for matching text?
>> >
>> > I'd be interested in any ideas folk have about these issues, or any
>> others
>> > they can envisage with this proposal.
>>
>> Base64 encoding will work when the native base64 functions are available
>> in MySQL which will allow you to base64 encode the data into a statement
>> like INSERT INTO table SET field = FROM_BASE64("<?php echo
>> base64_encode($data); ?>") sorta thing. I'm still not a massive fan of that
>> idea given that prepared statements are an option, but it would work.
>>
>> -Stuart
>>
>> --
>> Stuart Dallas
>> 3ft9 Ltd
>> http://3ft9.com/
>> --
>>
>>
> Inserting and updating isn't the problem.  I think Mark referring to is how
> would that be implemented in this simple type of query:
>
> SELECT * FROM my_table WHERE col_name LIKE '%key word%';
>
> If there's no viable mean to filter the data, that storage method/medium is
> rather pointless, IMHO.
>
>
> Go back and read what I wrote again. Base64 is only being used to transmit
> the data to MySQL - it's being stored in the database in its decoded form.
>
> -Stuart
>
> --
> Stuart Dallas
> 3ft9 Ltd
> http://3ft9.com/
>

The question still applies as how would you safeguard that 'key word'
transmission, especially against SQL injection.  I suppose one could do it
this way:

SELECT * FROM my_table WHERE col_name LIKE CONCAT('%', FROM_BASE64("<?php
echo base64_encode($data); ?>"), '%')

Is the overhead worth it to warrant that kind of safeguard?  That's just a
simple query with a simple search criteria.  What about in the case of
subselect and multi-table joins?

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