Book Image

Learning Joomla! 3 Extension Development - Third Edition

By : Timothy John Plummer
Book Image

Learning Joomla! 3 Extension Development - Third Edition

By: Timothy John Plummer

Overview of this book

Joomla 3 is the first of the major open source content management systems that was meant to be mobile friendly by default. Joomla uses object-oriented principles, is database agnostic, and has the best mix of functionality, extensibility, and user friendliness. Add to that the fact that Joomla is completely community driven, and you have a winning combination that is available to everyone, and is the perfect platform to build your own custom applications. "Learning Joomla! 3 Extension Development" is an integrated series of practical, hands-on tutorials that guide you through building and extending Joomla plugins, modules, and components. With Joomla having been downloaded well over 35 million times, there is a huge market for Joomla extensions, so you could potentially earn some extra cash in your spare time using your newly acquired Joomla extension development skills. We will start with developing simple plugins and modules, and then progress to more complex backend and frontend component development. Then we will try our hand at ethical hacking, so you will learn about common security vulnerabilities and what you can do to avoid them. After that we will look at how you can prepare your extensions for distribution and updates, as well as how you can extend your components with various plugins and modules. Finally, you will end up with a fully functioning package of extensions that you can use on your own site or share with others. If you want to build your own custom applications in Joomla, then "Learning Joomla! 3 Extension Development" will teach you everything you need to know in a practical, hands-on manner.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Learning Joomla! 3 Extension Development
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

SQL injection


One of the most common Joomla! hacks is via a SQL injection, where a hacker is able to execute their own SQL commands on your website, which pretty much allows them to do whatever they like. Usually a hacker exploiting a SQL injection vulnerability will give themselves super admin access to your site, then depending on their motives, they may deface or break your site, or perhaps insert their own malicious code to infect your website visitors with malware.

You can avoid SQL injections by never trusting your users and always sanitizing any input. If you are expecting an integer, then cast the input as an int to be 100 percent sure.

The information I'm about to share with you should be used for good and not evil. Black hat hackers should be warned that each time you use this for evil, a cute kitten dies, and you become significantly less attractive to the opposite sex. Not to mention that in most jurisdictions it's a criminal offense!

Let's assume that you wanted to find the username...