SQL Injection

SQL Injection is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability where attackers manipulate input fields to inject malicious SQL code that alters the intended query logic. In the context of gaining unauthorized access, attackers exploit improperly sanitized inputs in login forms to circumvent authentication mechanisms entirely. A common approach involves injecting conditions that always evaluate to true (e.g., ' OR 1=1 --), which can trick vulnerable systems into authenticating without valid credentials. More sophisticated attacks might use UNION-based injections to extract credentials from user tables, blind SQL injection techniques to systematically extract authentication data, or error-based methods to retrieve authentication information from database error messages. This authentication bypass technique requires minimal resources while potentially yielding complete unauthorized access to applications, making it consistently ranked among OWASP's top web application security risks.