How can error handling be improved in PHP scripts utilizing cURL to prevent unauthorized access and improve overall security?

To improve error handling in PHP scripts utilizing cURL, you can check the HTTP response code to ensure that the request was successful and handle any errors accordingly. Additionally, you can set the CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER option to true to capture the response data and check for any error messages returned by the server. This can help prevent unauthorized access and improve overall security by properly handling errors.

$url = 'https://example.com/api';

$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
$httpCode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);

if ($httpCode != 200) {
    echo "Error: HTTP response code " . $httpCode;
    // Handle error accordingly
} else {
    // Process the response data
    echo $response;
}

curl_close($ch);