What are common errors to look out for when setting up a PHP login system?

One common error to look out for when setting up a PHP login system is failing to properly sanitize user input, which can lead to SQL injection attacks. To prevent this, always use prepared statements when interacting with the database to securely handle user input.

// Example of using prepared statements to prevent SQL injection

// Assuming $username and $password are user input variables
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username AND password = :password");
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->bindParam(':password', $password);
$stmt->execute();

// Check if the user exists and the password is correct
if($stmt->rowCount() > 0) {
    // User authenticated
} else {
    // Authentication failed
}