php - what does mysql_real_escape_string() really do?

Question

One thing that I hate about documentation at times (when you're a beginner) is how it doesn't really describe things in english. Would anyone mind translating this documentation for me? I'd like to know how exactly this makes things harder for a hacker to insert characters.

http://php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-real-escape-string.php

Also, if this is the case, how would a hacker try to insert characters?

Answer 1

The function adds an escape character, the backslash, , before certain potentially dangerous characters in a string passed in to the function. The characters escaped are

x00, , , , ', " and x1a.

This can help prevent SQL injection attacks which are often performed by using the ' character to append malicious code to an SQL query.