What are common pitfalls when using the MySQL extension in PHP?

One common pitfall when using the MySQL extension in PHP is not properly escaping user input, leading to SQL injection vulnerabilities. To solve this issue, always use prepared statements or parameterized queries to safely handle user input. 

// Example of using prepared statements with MySQLi extension
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

$stmt = $conn->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("s", $username);

$username = $_POST['username'];
$stmt->execute();

$result = $stmt->get_result();
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    // process results
}

$stmt->close();
$conn->close();

Keywords

MySQL extension PHP security vulnerabilities deprecated functions SQL injection

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