During a penetration test, an analyst types the string ' or 1=1-- into an e-commerce site's search box. Instead of returning one product, the application responds with every record in the customer table. Which type of attack or vulnerability is most likely being exploited to obtain confidential data from the database?
SQL injection occurs when untrusted input is treated as part of a Structured Query Language statement. Special characters such as a single quote can terminate the intended query, and expressions like 1=1 force the database to return all rows, exposing sensitive information and allowing data manipulation. Cross-site scripting injects client-side scripts into the browser, command injection targets the host operating system's shell, and directory traversal tries to access files outside the web root. None of those abuses the SQL parser to read or alter database contents as SQL injection does.
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