Does Magento Use SQL Injection Attacks?
Magento uses PHP and MySQL databases to store and manage data. However, the open-source e-commerce platform is vulnerable to SQL injection attacks – a serious threat that’s becoming increasingly common.
It’s a good idea to use prepared statements when communicating with the database. These statements are stored and parsed later to ensure that input is safe.
Object-Relational Mapping (ORM)
The Magento framework uses Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) to interact with data from a database. It allows developers to map logical business models to physical storage models, without having to re-create the Models themselves or write new code for each database platform they wish to support.
Object-relational mapping is an IT programming technique for converting data between incompatible type systems using object-oriented languages. This creates a virtual object database that can be used from within the programming language.
Most PHP frameworks use a different paradigm for ORM, but most of them provide some level of abstraction. Some even implement a layered system of abstracted classes, methods and objects that allow you to use the data in your database like you would an object-oriented program.
The Magento framework has an Object-Relational Mapping implementation in its Data Models tier that decouples the logical Model from the code that connects it to the database. This makes it easy to switch from one database platform to another while keeping your Models intact and independent of the database server.
Entities
In a database, an entity is anything that you can uniquely identify and keep information on. This can be a person, place, event, object or concept, such as an online order.
In Magento, entities are stored in a hierarchy of tables. The top table in this hierarchy is catalog_product_entity. This table includes some basic base information about a product, but does not include any useful information other than the SKU!
Values of an entity’s attributes are stored in a different set of tables. This is called EAV (Entity-attribute-value) modeling.
For each new attribute, a new row is created in the EAV table. This enables Magento to store new attributes without needing to break the structure of the core table, and can provide scalability in case you add more than a few attributes at a time.
The table eav_attribute is used to store the attributes of all different entities. This table is joined to the catalog_product_entity_[backend_type] table.
Attributes
Attributes are a way for Magento to store information about products and keep them organized. They can also be used for navigation in the catalog and as a search option on the front end.
In Magento, product attributes are stored in a special EAV system configuration living in the same database as your store’s data. This allows Magento to add new attributes without modifying the core database structure.
Adding product attributes is simple. From the Stores menu, navigate to Attributes > Product.
Here you will see a grid with 66 product attributes showing such parameters as an attribute code, a default label, whether it is required, system, visible, searchable, used in layered navigation, and comparable; what its scope is; and what values are required.
Attributes can be set to require values, so if the value isn’t set then the attribute won’t be available for the product upload. They can be assigned to attribute sets, which are groups of attributes characteristic of a specific type of product.
Values
Magento is a full-featured eCommerce solution that lets you sell products and services online. It supports multiple currencies and languages and offers a flexible, feature-rich architecture.
The system uses a database to store and manage all of its data. This data is referred to as “entities” or “data items” and each entity has its own set of attributes and values.
Attributes and values are used to store data for products, categories, customers, and orders. They are a crucial part of any Magento installation.
When you save a Model in Magento, the database hides away most of the complex SQL needed to perform data operations. This makes it much easier to learn how to use models but it can negatively impact the speed of your website if you are dealing with large amounts of data.