How can PHP beginners avoid common pitfalls when implementing user authentication and redirection logic?

Issue: One common pitfall when implementing user authentication and redirection logic in PHP is not properly validating user input, leading to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection attacks. To avoid this, always sanitize and validate user input before using it in database queries or authentication checks. 

// Validate and sanitize user input before using it in database queries
$username = filter_var($_POST['username'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$password = filter_var($_POST['password'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Perform authentication logic after sanitizing user input
// Example: checking username and password against database records
if ($username === 'admin' && $password === 'password') {
    // Redirect authenticated user to dashboard page
    header('Location: dashboard.php');
    exit();
} else {
    // Redirect unauthenticated user back to login page
    header('Location: login.php');
    exit();
}

Keywords

password hashing session management CSRF protection secure cookies input validation

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