What is an SQL injection?

An SQL injection refers to a type of cyber attack that exploits vulnerabilities in a web application’s software by inserting or "injecting" malicious SQL queries through input fields or parameters. This can allow an attacker to manipulate a database to perform unauthorized actions, such as accessing, modifying, or deleting data. The attack takes advantage of inadequate input validation that does not properly escape or filter user inputs. This can lead to serious security breaches, allowing attackers to view sensitive information that they should not have access to.

Understanding SQL injections is critical for web security, as they represent one of the most common and dangerous types of attacks against database-driven applications. Organizations implement various measures, such as input validation, prepared statements, and parameterized queries, to protect against this type of vulnerability and secure their databases from unauthorized manipulation.