Sam, a security analyst with INFOSOL INC.

The regex pattern /\\w*((\%27)|(\’))((\%6F)|o|(\%4F))((\%72)|r|(\%52))/ix is designed to detect SQL injection attacks. The pattern looks for common SQL injection payloads which typically include an apostrophe or single quote character (' or %27 when URL-encoded) followed by a logical operator OR (represented by o, %6F, O, %4F, r, %72, R, %52). SQL injection attacks involve inserting or “injecting” a SQL query via the input data from the client to the application. A successful SQL injection exploit can read sensitive data from the database, modify database data (Insert/Update/Delete), execute administration operations on the database (such as shutdown the DBMS), recover the content of a given file present on the DBMS file system, and in some cases, issue commands to the operating system.

References: The explanation provided is based on standard practices of monitoring and analyzing IIS logs for security threats. Information about the regex pattern used for detecting SQL injection attacks can be found in various cybersecurity resources, including OWASP’s guide on Testing for SQL Injection1 and Microsoft’s documentation on IIS logging2. These resources explain how regex patterns are used to identify potential security threats in log files and the importance of monitoring logs for unusual patterns that may indicate an attack.