Are there any common pitfalls to be aware of when processing form data in PHP?

One common pitfall when processing form data in PHP is not properly sanitizing user input, which can leave your application vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. To prevent this, always use prepared statements or parameterized queries when interacting with a database. Additionally, make sure to validate and sanitize all user input to prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. 

// Example of using prepared statements to process form data safely

// Establish a database connection
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=my_database', 'username', 'password');

// Prepare a SQL statement with placeholders
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO users (username, email) VALUES (:username, :email)");

// Bind the form data to the placeholders
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $_POST['username']);
$stmt->bindParam(':email', $_POST['email']);

// Execute the statement
$stmt->execute();

Keywords

SQL injection XSS attacks form validation data sanitization PHP security

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