Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (LAMP) is the bread and butter of web development. It's where most people start, and sometimes, where they stay. There are a lot of live Apache sites out there, and often in internal networks you see test sites or simple solutions thrown together on an Apache install.

LAMP is currently what's missing from the UK school curriculum, and as of this writing, what's missing from schools around the world. These four skills take the Internet from being a mystical land of magic into a collection of examples of how not to do things. If you want to keep the mystery alive, don't read anything about LAMP, history, or math. In fact, stay indoors with your eyes closed.

We're going to create a basic login page for our testers to break using Cross-platform Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl (XAMPP). It's going to be quick and dirty like a good martini. I'll give some code that's vulnerable to everything I can think of and then provide some quick ways...