Member-only story
Understanding OWASP SQL Injection in PHP (and how to prevent it)
A practical guide to detecting and preventing SQL injection vulnerabilities in your PHP applications.
What Is SQL Injection?
SQL Injection (SQLi) is one of the most dangerous vulnerabilities that can affect web applications. It allows attackers to interfere with the queries an application makes to its database. At its worst, SQLi can lead to data breaches, credential leaks, or even complete control of the application.
SQL Injection has ranked consistently in the OWASP Top 10 — a trusted list of the most critical web application security risks.
🔓 Not a Medium member yet? Click here to access this article for FREE!
Why Is PHP Often Targeted?
PHP is still one of the most widely used server-side scripting languages. Unfortunately, legacy PHP code and improper use of database APIs (like mysql_query() or unparameterized queries) make many PHP apps vulnerable to SQLi.
Let’s walk through an example and learn how to detect and prevent SQL Injection in PHP.
🚨 Vulnerable PHP Code Example
<?php
// Warning: Vulnerable to SQL…
