What are common pitfalls when passing variables in PHP forms to a database?

One common pitfall when passing variables from PHP forms to a database is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to SQL injection attacks. To prevent this, always use prepared statements or parameterized queries to safely pass variables to the database. Additionally, make sure to validate and sanitize user input before inserting it into the database to avoid any potential security risks. 

// Example code snippet using prepared statements to pass variables from a PHP form to a database

// Assuming $conn is the database connection object

// Sanitize and validate user input
$username = filter_var($_POST['username'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

// Prepare the SQL statement using a prepared statement
$stmt = $conn->prepare("INSERT INTO users (username, email) VALUES (?, ?)");
$stmt->bind_param("ss", $username, $email);

// Execute the statement
$stmt->execute();

Keywords

SQL injection data validation prepared statements PDO XSS protection

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