What are some best practices for authenticating scripts on different servers in PHP without exposing sensitive data through GET parameters?

When authenticating scripts on different servers in PHP without exposing sensitive data through GET parameters, it is best practice to use a secure method such as HMAC (Hash-based Message Authentication Code) for authentication. This involves generating a unique hash based on the data being sent and a secret key that is known only to the servers involved. This ensures that the data is securely transmitted without the need to expose sensitive information in the URL. 

// Generating HMAC hash for authentication
function generateHMAC($data, $secretKey) {
    return hash_hmac('sha256', $data, $secretKey);
}

// Verify HMAC hash for authentication
function verifyHMAC($data, $receivedHash, $secretKey) {
    $expectedHash = generateHMAC($data, $secretKey);
    return hash_equals($expectedHash, $receivedHash);
}

// Example of generating and verifying HMAC hash
$data = 'example_data';
$secretKey = 'secret_key';

// Generate HMAC hash
$hash = generateHMAC($data, $secretKey);

// Verify HMAC hash
if (verifyHMAC($data, $hash, $secretKey)) {
    echo 'Authentication successful';
} else {
    echo 'Authentication failed';
}

Keywords

authentication server PHP sensitive data GET parameters

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