Are there any security concerns when including variables from an external text file in PHP?

When including variables from an external text file in PHP, there is a security concern if the file contains user-input data or malicious code. To mitigate this risk, it is important to validate and sanitize the input before using it in your code. This can prevent potential security vulnerabilities such as code injection or cross-site scripting attacks. 

// Load external file with variables
$externalFile = 'external_variables.txt';
$variables = file_get_contents($externalFile);

// Validate and sanitize the input
$variables = filter_var($variables, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Now you can use the variables safely in your code
echo $variables;

Keywords

security concerns variables external text file PHP include

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