Code Injection

Code injection is a type of security vulnerability that allows an attacker to introduce or "inject" malicious code into a program or system. This malicious code is then executed by the system, typically with the same privileges as the application it's attacking. The goal of code injection can vary from unauthorized data access, data manipulation, to taking complete control of the affected system.

There are several types of code injection attacks, each targeting different aspects of a system:

  1. SQL Injection: Occurs when an attacker is able to insert a malicious SQL query into input fields, exploiting vulnerabilities in the application's database layer. This can lead to unauthorized access to or manipulation of database information.
  2. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): Involves injecting malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users. This can lead to the theft of cookies, session tokens, or other sensitive information from the victims' browser.
  3. Command Injection: Happens when an attacker is able to execute arbitrary commands on the host operating system through a vulnerable application.
  4. HTML Injection: Involves inserting malicious HTML code into a webpage that is then rendered by other users' browsers.
  5. Script Injection: Similar to XSS, this involves injecting scripts, often in languages like JavaScript, into web applications.