Are there any security considerations to keep in mind when verifying directory existence in PHP?

When verifying directory existence in PHP, it's important to consider security implications such as directory traversal attacks. To mitigate this risk, always sanitize user input and use secure methods to check directory existence, such as using absolute paths and checking permissions.

$directory = '/path/to/directory/';

if (is_dir($directory)) {
    echo 'Directory exists';
} else {
    echo 'Directory does not exist';
}