There are 4 main ways that PHP web development services can prevent hackers from breaking into your database and stealing confidential information about your users.
- Parameterized Statement
With the aid of database drivers, an application can create and execute SQL statements against a database, retrieving and transforming data as required. Programming languages can communicate with SQL databases using these drivers as well. As a result, parameterized statements safely handle inputs (also known as parameters) passed into SQL statements.
- Object Relational Mapping
Object Relational Mapping (ORM) frameworks are favored by many developers when transforming SQL result sets into code objects. Because ORM tools use parameterized SQL statements internally, developers hardly ever need to write SQL statements in their code. Consequently, you can hire PHP developers who are proficient with these tools.
The use of an ORM does not, however, make your software immune to SQL injection. Many ORM frameworks allow you to construct SQL statements or portions of SQL statements when performing more complicated database operations. Therefore, it is crucial to exercise caution when having your developers write code in these circumstances.
- Escaping Inputs
There will be instances in which using parameterized statements or a library that generates SQL for you is not an option. The best course of action in that situation is to ensure that special string characters in input parameters are properly escaped by your developers.
Injection attacks frequently call for the attacker to be able to create an input that will close the argument string before it appears in the SQL statement.
In programming languages, there are standard ways to describe strings containing quotes. It instructs the program to treat the quote as a part of the string rather than the string's conclusion. That occurs when a single quote is doubled up and double quotes are used in place of the single quote.
- Validating and Sanitizing Inputs
Testing the data that a user is entering into a form is similar to input validation.
These tests allow the user to assess the accuracy of the data they have entered. If they are wrong, you can even send them a message.
User input values can be validated on the client side for a better user experience, but they should also be done on the back end. They are able to send incorrectly formatted data to the back-end by avoiding the client-side code. Therefore, it's crucial to validate the code on the backend as well.
Sanitizing inputs is a good practice for all applications. Almost every PHP development company makes an effort to immediately reject inputs that seem suspect, but be careful not to unintentionally penalize genuine users.
When a user fills out a form, client-side validation is helpful in giving them immediate feedback. But it cannot stand a determined hacker. The majority of hacking attempts use scripts rather than the browser itself.