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fix(spanner): escape embedded backticks in dbapi escape_name#17810

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fix-spanner-dbapi-escape-name
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fix(spanner): escape embedded backticks in dbapi escape_name#17810
sakthivelmanii wants to merge 1 commit into
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fix-spanner-dbapi-escape-name

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In google-cloud-spanner DB-API, escape_name() did not check for or double embedded backtick characters (`) when wrapping identifiers. This allowed identifiers containing backticks to break out of backtick-quoted identifier scopes (CWE-89 identifier injection).

This commit updates escape_name() to:

  • Detect embedded backtick characters in identifier names.
  • Escape internal backticks by doubling them (replace("`", "``")) when enclosing identifiers in backticks.
  • Add unit test cases for embedded backticks in test_escape_name.

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Fixes #<issue_number_goes_here> 🦕

@sakthivelmanii
sakthivelmanii requested a review from a team as a code owner July 21, 2026 17:59

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Code Review

This pull request updates the escape_name function in parse_utils.py to escape backticks by doubling them, and adds corresponding unit tests. The review feedback points out a critical security vulnerability (SQL injection) where identifiers containing other special characters (such as comments or semicolons) but no spaces, hyphens, or backticks could bypass escaping. A code suggestion is provided to resolve this by strictly validating identifiers and escaping any that are not valid regular ASCII identifiers.

Comment on lines 396 to 398
if "-" in name or " " in name or "`" in name or name.upper() in SPANNER_RESERVED_KEYWORDS:
return "`" + name.replace("`", "``") + "`"
return name

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security-high high

While escaping backticks prevents direct breakout from backtick-quoted identifiers, the current check still allows other special characters (such as newlines \n, semicolons ;, or comments /**/) to pass through unescaped if the identifier does not happen to contain spaces, hyphens, or backticks. This can lead to SQL injection (CWE-89) or syntax errors.

For example, an identifier like col/**/union/**/select/**/password/**/from/**/users contains no spaces, hyphens, or backticks, so it would not be escaped, allowing an attacker to inject arbitrary SQL commands.

To fully secure escape_name, any identifier that is not a valid regular identifier (i.e., contains characters other than ASCII letters, numbers, and underscores, or starts with a digit) should be enclosed in backticks.

Suggested change
if "-" in name or " " in name or "`" in name or name.upper() in SPANNER_RESERVED_KEYWORDS:
return "`" + name.replace("`", "``") + "`"
return name
if not name:
return name
is_valid = (
(name[0].isalpha() or name[0] == "_")
and all(c.isalnum() or c == "_" for c in name)
and name.isascii()
)
if not is_valid or name.upper() in SPANNER_RESERVED_KEYWORDS:
backtick = chr(96)
return backtick + name.replace(backtick, backtick + backtick) + backtick
return name

@sakthivelmanii
sakthivelmanii force-pushed the fix-spanner-dbapi-escape-name branch from 48a958a to 044851b Compare July 21, 2026 18:05
In google-cloud-spanner DB-API, escape_name() did not check for or double embedded backtick characters (`) when wrapping identifiers. This allowed identifiers containing backticks to break out of backtick-quoted identifier scopes (CWE-89 identifier injection).

This commit updates escape_name() to:
- Detect embedded backtick characters in identifier names.
- Escape internal backticks by doubling them (replace("`", "``")) when enclosing identifiers in backticks.
- Add unit test cases for embedded backticks in test_escape_name.
@sakthivelmanii
sakthivelmanii force-pushed the fix-spanner-dbapi-escape-name branch from 044851b to 15dcb8a Compare July 22, 2026 04:49
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