What are common pitfalls when using PHP for user registration and email functionalities in a forum setting?

One common pitfall when using PHP for user registration and email functionalities in a forum setting is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. To solve this issue, always use prepared statements for database queries and validate user input before processing it. 

// Example of using prepared statements to insert user registration data into a database
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO users (username, email, password) VALUES (?, ?, ?)");
$stmt->execute([$username, $email, $hashedPassword]);
```

```php
// Example of validating email input before sending an email
if (filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
    // Send email
} else {
    // Handle invalid email address
}

Keywords

SQL injection password hashing email validation CSRF protection SMTP configuration

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