Validation & Sanitation
Computer Science: Cambridge International GCSE, topic 2.1.12
Validation and Sanitation
Validation and sanitation can help to protect against malicious inputs such as SQL injection attacks.
Input sanitation
- Input sanitation involves the removal of unwanted characters from input data.
- This is a chief line of defence against attacks such as the SQL injection attack.
- Any data entered by users which might be executed or become part of a query should first be sanitised.
Input validation
- Input validation is the process of making sure that input data meets certain criteria.
- If a user's data is rejected, they should be informed and asked to enter it again.
Input validation rules
- Type checks check the type (e.g. Integer) of the input.
- Range checks check that the data is inside an allowed range, e.g. less than 100.
- Presence checks check that the required data has been input.
- Format checks check that the data fits a set format, e.g. an email address has an @ symbol.
- Length checks check that the number of characters entered is inside a permitted range.
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