In what ways can PHP developers enhance the overall security of their applications when dealing with user-generated content and interactions?

To enhance the overall security of PHP applications when dealing with user-generated content and interactions, developers can implement input validation, output escaping, and parameterized queries to prevent SQL injection attacks. Additionally, implementing proper authentication and authorization mechanisms can help protect sensitive user data. 

// Example of input validation
$userInput = $_POST['user_input'];
if (!filter_var($userInput, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
    // Invalid email address
}

// Example of output escaping
$userInput = $_POST['user_input'];
echo htmlentities($userInput);

// Example of parameterized query
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username');
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->execute();

Keywords

Cross-site scripting SQL injection input validation password hashing secure file uploads

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