How can one ensure the security of a forum integrated into a website using PHP?

To ensure the security of a forum integrated into a website using PHP, it is important to sanitize user input to prevent SQL injection attacks, validate user permissions to restrict access to certain forum features, and implement measures to prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

// Sanitize user input to prevent SQL injection
$username = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_POST['username']);
$password = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_POST['password']);

// Validate user permissions
if($user['role'] != 'admin'){
    die('You do not have permission to access this feature.');
}

// Prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks
echo htmlspecialchars($_POST['comment'], ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');