The strings are taken as-is and inserted, via string interpolation, into the query string. In this example, the variables username and password are retrieved from the HTTP POST that was submitted by the user. The unsanitized input contains special characters that modify the structure of the query before it is passed to the query parser.įor example, consider a query in a PHP snippet that tests whether a user entering credentials at a login page is a valid user in the database: $username = $_GET $password = $_GET $sql = “select USER_ID from USERS where USERNAME=’$username’ and PASSWORD=’$password’ ” This can happen when the developer pastes together pieces of a query with “unsanitized” user input.

A malicious user can enter unexpected special characters to modify the structure of a SQL query. SQL Injection is a vulnerability that is introduced when software developers do not check data entered by users for validity and suitability to purpose. What exactly could one do with a SQL Injection attack, anyway? No one was quite sure, but since our software was going into a secure military installation, we were pretty sure that the perimeter defenses would prevent anyone from harming it. One of these mysterious incantations was the dreaded “SQL Injection” attack. It did not occur to us that many of the vulnerabilities could be exploited by anyone with basic web development coding skills and the willingness to spend a few hours on research.

Hacking seemed like an arcane art, only mastered by those willing to spend years pouring over dusty tomes of x86 assembly language manuals and protocol RFCs.

Although I had heard about security vulnerabilities introduced to software via poor coding practices, I, like many of my colleagues, did not take security all that seriously. Before getting into cybersecurity, I was a software developer for many years.

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