What additional security measures can be implemented in PHP to protect against unauthorized database access and other vulnerabilities?

To protect against unauthorized database access and other vulnerabilities in PHP, additional security measures such as input validation, parameterized queries, and escaping user input should be implemented.

// Example of implementing input validation and parameterized queries to protect against SQL injection

// Validate user input
$username = filter_var($_POST['username'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$password = filter_var($_POST['password'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Create a PDO connection
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase', 'username', 'password');

// Prepare and execute a parameterized query
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username AND password = :password');
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->bindParam(':password', $password);
$stmt->execute();

// Fetch the results
$user = $stmt->fetch();