What is the Difference Between XSS and SQL Injection

The main difference between XSS and SQL injection is that XSS injects malicious code to the website, therefore, that code is executed in the users of the website, while SQL injection inserts the SQL code to a web form input field to obtain access and modify data.

There are various websites available on the World Wide Web that belong to different categories. Generally, most business organizations maintain a website. However, various attacks can occur on a website. Two of them are XSS and SQL Injection.  

Key Areas Covered

1. What is XSS
      -Definition, Functionality
2. What is SQL Injection
     -Definition, Functionality
3. Difference Between XSS and SQL Injection
     -Comparison of key differences

Key Terms

Cookies, Javascript, Malware, Non-persistent XSS, Persistent XSS, SQL, SQL Injection, XSS

What is XSS

XSS stands for Cross-Site Scripting. It is a common website attack that is capable of affecting the website as well as the users of the website. Attackers commonly use JavaScript to write malicious code in XSS. The code can steal user’s cookie details, change user settings, display various malware downloads and many more.

Generally, there are two types of XSS  as persistent and non-persistent XSS. In persistent XSS, the malicious code is saved to the server in the database.  Afterwards, the code is executed on the page. However, in non-persistent XSS, the attacker sends the injected malicious code to the server through an HTTP request. Usually, these type of attacks can occur in search fields.

What is SQL Injection 

An SQL injection is a method of hacking a website. This method places a malicious code in the SQL statement via web page input. Generally, a website collects the user details through a form. An attacker can provide an SQL statement on the input fields instead of entering the real input values. Thus, this code can execute on the database of the website. Likewise, the user can get access to confidential details such as usernames and passwords. Therefore, the programmer who is developing the website has to take care to prevent SQL injection attacks.

Difference Between XSS and SQL Injection

Definition

XSS is a type of computer security vulnerability found in web applications that enables attackers to inject client-side scripts into web pages viewed by the users. In contrast, SQL injection is a code injection technique used to attack data-driven applications in which malicious SQL statements are inserted into an entry field for execution.

Functionality

XSS injects malicious code into the website and the code executes on the users of the website. On the other hand, SQL injection adds SQL code to the input field to access the confidential details or make changes to the data stored in the database. Thus, this is the main difference between XSS and SQL injection.

Language

Moreover, XSS is mostly written in JavaScript while SQL injection involves Structured Query Language (SQL). Hence, this is another difference between XSS and SQL injection. 

Conclusion

In brief, XSS and SQL injection are two types of attacks that can occur on websites. The main difference between XSS and SQL injection is that XSS injects malicious code to the website, therefore, those code executes in the users of the website while SQL injection inserts the SQL code to a web form input field to obtain access and modify data.

References:

1.“What Is Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)? – Definition from WhatIs.com.” SearchSecurity, Available here.
2.“Cross-Site Scripting.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 June 2019, Available here.
3.“SQL Injection.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 July 2019, Available here.
4.SQL Injection, Available here.

Image Courtesy:

1.”1784985″ via Pixabay

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