How can PHP code be optimized to prevent the execution of any embedded PHP code when downloading a file?

To prevent the execution of any embedded PHP code when downloading a file, you can use the readfile() function in PHP. This function reads a file and sends it directly to the output buffer without parsing it as PHP code. This ensures that the file is downloaded as-is without any PHP code execution.

$file = 'path/to/file.txt';

header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . basename($file) . '"');
header('Expires: 0');
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
header('Pragma: public');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));

readfile($file);
exit;