Question

Possible Duplicate:
PHP’s mysql_real_escape_string and MySQL Injection

This is the character in question:

\x1A

Why does it pose a threat and what is it? Googling says it’s a control character but I don’t understand what that means, especially in the context of escaping data.

Thanks

Answer 1

0x1A is ctrl-z, which in DOS days was used as an EOF (end-of-file) marker. While it shouldn’t be a problem on any modern database, it could have been used to sneak extra query statements past an old dos-days SQL parser, so you’d end up with something like:

UPDATE scores SET points=points+1
ctrl-z
DROP TABLE scores

A stupid parser would stop at the ctrl-z, thinking “hey, look, it’s the end of the file”. The entire string would be passed to the DB, and if it was a “smart” db, would ignore the ctrl-z and happily execute the drop command