How can the use of PHP superglobal variables like $_POST be optimized for secure form data handling in login scripts?

When handling form data in login scripts, it is important to sanitize and validate user input to prevent security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. One way to optimize the use of PHP superglobal variables like $_POST is to use filter_input() function to sanitize and validate input data before processing it in the script. 

$username = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'username', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$password = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'password', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Validate input data
if($username && $password){
    // Proceed with login authentication
    // Your code here
} else {
    // Handle invalid input
    echo "Invalid username or password";
}

Keywords

PHP superglobal variables $_POST secure form data handling login scripts

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