How can sessions and cookies be used effectively for security in PHP applications?

Sessions and cookies can be used effectively for security in PHP applications by ensuring that sensitive data is stored securely and not exposed to potential attackers. This can be achieved by using secure session handling techniques, such as setting session cookies to be HttpOnly and Secure, and validating user input to prevent common security vulnerabilities like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. 

// Start a secure session
session_start([
    'cookie_httponly' => true,
    'cookie_secure' => true,
]);

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

// Prevent XSS attacks by sanitizing output
echo htmlspecialchars($_SESSION['user_data'], ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');

Keywords

sessions cookies security PHP applications authentication

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