Maya was a junior penetration tester, and she loved puzzles. One quiet Tuesday, her boss slid a yellow sticky note across the desk. On it was written:
: This represents a query string parameter. It tells the PHP script to fetch data from a database corresponding to an entry with an identification number ( id ) of 1 (such as a specific product, article, or user profile). inurl php id 1
$id = (int)$_GET['id']; // Forces the input to be an integer, neutralizing SQL strings Use code with caution. Use Robots.txt and Noindex Tags Maya was a junior penetration tester, and she loved puzzles
When a user visits a URL like ://example.com , the backend web server typically executes a database query that looks like this: SELECT * FROM articles WHERE id = 1; Use code with caution. It tells the PHP script to fetch data
if (filter_var($_GET['id'], FILTER_VALIDATE_INT)) // Proceed with query else // Reject input
Maya typed into a private search window: