What are some best practices for implementing user permissions and rights management in PHP/MySQL applications?

Issue: Implementing user permissions and rights management in PHP/MySQL applications is crucial for ensuring data security and restricting access to sensitive information. Code snippet:

// Check user permissions before allowing access to certain pages or actions
function check_permissions($required_permission) {
    if ($_SESSION['user_permission'] < $required_permission) {
        // Redirect to an error page or display an error message
        header("Location: error.php");
        exit();
    }
}

// Example usage:
// Check if user has permission level 2 to access a specific page
check_permissions(2);