Input validation and sanitization with Python
Input validation and sanitization are critical techniques to prevent attackers from exploiting your application through malicious inputs. By ensuring that the data entering your system is clean, well-formed, and adheres to the expected format, you can significantly reduce the risk of security vulnerabilities. This section looks into the importance of these practices and explores various techniques to implement them effectively in Python.
Input validation
Input validation involves verifying that incoming data conforms to the expected formats, ranges, and types. This step is essential for maintaining data integrity and preventing injection attacks. Techniques for input validation are as follows:
- Whitelist validation: Whitelist validation defines what is considered valid input and rejects everything else. This approach is more secure than blacklist validation, which specifies invalid inputs, as it reduces the risk of overlooking...