What are common pitfalls to avoid when working with form data and text files in PHP?

One common pitfall to avoid when working with form data and text files in PHP is not properly sanitizing user input before processing or storing it. This can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. To mitigate this risk, always use functions like htmlspecialchars() or mysqli_real_escape_string() to sanitize user input before using it in your code. 

// Example of sanitizing user input before processing it
$userInput = $_POST['user_input'];
$sanitizedInput = htmlspecialchars($userInput);
// Now you can safely use $sanitizedInput in your code

Keywords

file handling form validation security vulnerabilities fopen file_get_contents

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