What are common security risks associated with PHP forums and private messages?

Common security risks associated with PHP forums and private messages include SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and session hijacking. To mitigate these risks, it is important to properly sanitize user input, validate user permissions, and use secure communication protocols. 

// Example of sanitizing user input to prevent SQL injection
$username = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_POST['username']);
$password = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_POST['password']);
```

```php
// Example of validating user permissions before accessing private messages
if ($user['role'] == 'admin') {
    // Display private messages
} else {
    // Show error message
}
```

```php
// Example of using secure communication protocols to prevent session hijacking
session_start();
if (!isset($_SESSION['secure_token'])) {
    $_SESSION['secure_token'] = bin2hex(random_bytes(32));
}

Keywords

SQL injection Cross-site scripting (XSS) Session hijacking CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) File inclusion vulnerabilities

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