What are some common pitfalls to avoid when using $_POST to pass values to a backend PHP page?

One common pitfall to avoid when using $_POST to pass values to a backend PHP page is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. To prevent this, always sanitize and validate user input before using it in your code. 

// Sanitize and validate user input before using it
$username = isset($_POST['username']) ? htmlspecialchars($_POST['username']) : '';
$password = isset($_POST['password']) ? htmlspecialchars($_POST['password']) : '';

// Use prepared statements to prevent SQL injection
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username AND password = :password");
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->bindParam(':password', $password);
$stmt->execute();

Keywords

$_POST backend PHP page security vulnerabilities data validation

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