The database ignores the final quote and semicolon, executes the sort, and confirms to the attacker that the query is valid and contains at least one column. 4. Impact
The ORDER BY clause tells the database to sort results by a specific column. -5025 ORDER BY 1#
This is the terminator . It attempts to break out of the developer's intended string literal. If the application does not sanitize input, the database engine will see this quote and assume the original command has ended, allowing the attacker to append their own logic. The database ignores the final quote and semicolon,
This is the comment character for MySQL. It tells the database to ignore everything that follows it in the original code. This prevents the "leftover" part of the developer’s query from causing a syntax error that would break the injection. 3. Execution Flow This is the terminator
This is the gold standard. It treats user input strictly as data, never as executable code.
Attackers increment this number (e.g., ORDER BY 2 , ORDER BY 3 ). When the database throws an error (e.g., "The ORDER BY position number 10 is out of range"), the attacker knows exactly how many columns the original query is fetching.