Code Injection

In this day and age, online services are being exposed to a variety of security risks. One of the most popular attack vectors is the injection of malicious code. Cybercriminals employ these injection attacks seeking to execute their own commands on other websites. Hackers have many different objectives, ranging from capturing login credentials and browser sessions, to data manipulation and data theft, to taking over web applications or entire systems.

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What you need to know about Code Injection

Injection attacks exploit vulnerabilities in the source code of websites. If these errors are not discovered when the page is created, in most cases the problematic code goes unnoticed until the consequences of an attack are felt.

Indications of injection attacks include uncontrolled data outflow, manipulation of user accounts or records, and error messages indicating corrupted files. In addition, atypical server queries are also indicative of injection attempts.

Since errors can never be ruled out, especially in the fast-moving digital industry with increasingly agile development, upstream protection solutions have become established as a proven means of defense against injection attacks. These technologies filter traffic based on predefined rules, differentiating between legitimate user requests and potential attacks.

The most common types of Code Injection attacks are:

SQL-Injection

Attacks employing SQL injection (SQLi for short) target online services that use the widely used SQL database language. This language is used, for example, to build data structures in relational databases and to edit and query datasets based on them. With SQLi, attackers exploit existing vulnerabilities in the source code, for example to inject their own commands and malicious code into online services via input forms. This is how hackers get their hands on valuable records. Most SQLi attacks can be attributed to flawed scripts and programs.

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Cross Site Scripting

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS for short) is one of the most popular attack vectors on the internet as a whole. It is not without reason that XSS is also listed in the top 10 threats of the renowned Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP). Cybercriminals employ XSS to insert malicious script code into normally harmless and trustworthy websites. When a user logs in to such sites, hackers are then able to gain access to the session. Using XSS, hackers can also obtain extensive access privileges to user systems and can even corrupt locally stored data.

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