Sanitize and Sanitized data is computer data (user input) checked by software to see if it contains information that might be harmful to the system. For instance, including HTML in a message board comment may be harmful to someone viewing the message since their computer might interpret the HTML as a command.

Therefore, HTML tags and special character sequences are usually sanitized (removed) from message data that might be misinterpreted as computer instructions or database queries. If its inputs are not sanitized, the application may be vulnerable to attacks, such as an SQL injection.

Input, Security terms

  • Computer security help and support.