Are there any potential security risks associated with using the exec function in PHP?
Using the exec function in PHP can pose security risks if user input is not properly sanitized. This can lead to command injection attacks where malicious code is executed on the server. To mitigate this risk, always validate and sanitize user input before passing it to the exec function.
$user_input = $_POST['input'];
$sanitized_input = escapeshellarg($user_input);
exec("command " . $sanitized_input);