What are the potential security risks of not using real_escape_string in PHP when accessing databases from a DMZ?
Without using real_escape_string in PHP when accessing databases from a DMZ, there is a risk of SQL injection attacks where malicious code can be injected into SQL queries, potentially leading to unauthorized access to the database or data leakage. To mitigate this risk, it is important to use real_escape_string to properly escape special characters in user input before inserting them into SQL queries.
// Establish a database connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}
// Escape user input to prevent SQL injection
$user_input = $conn->real_escape_string($user_input);
// Use the escaped user input in your SQL query
$sql = "SELECT * FROM table WHERE column = '$user_input'";
// Execute the query
$result = $conn->query($sql);
// Handle the query result
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
// output data
} else {
echo "0 results";
}
// Close the database connection
$conn->close();