What are best practices for handling user authentication and authorization in PHP scripts?

User authentication and authorization are crucial aspects of web application security. To handle user authentication, it is recommended to use secure hashing algorithms like bcrypt to store passwords and validate them during login. For authorization, implement role-based access control to determine what actions a user can perform based on their role.

// User authentication example using bcrypt
$password = 'user_password';
$hashedPassword = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);

// Validate password during login
if (password_verify($password, $hashedPassword)) {
    // Password is correct
    // Proceed with authentication
} else {
    // Password is incorrect
    // Display error message
}

// Role-based access control example
$userRole = 'admin';

// Check if user has permission to perform a specific action
if ($userRole === 'admin') {
    // User has permission to perform action
    // Proceed with authorization
} else {
    // User does not have permission
    // Display error message
}