What are some common pitfalls to avoid when receiving and processing files sent via HTTP in PHP?

One common pitfall to avoid when receiving and processing files sent via HTTP in PHP is not properly validating and sanitizing the file data before processing it. This can lead to security vulnerabilities such as file injection attacks. To mitigate this risk, always validate the file type and size before processing it. 

// Example of validating and sanitizing file data before processing
if(isset($_FILES['file'])) {
    $file = $_FILES['file'];

    // Validate file type
    $allowedTypes = ['image/jpeg', 'image/png'];
    if(!in_array($file['type'], $allowedTypes)) {
        die('Invalid file type. Only JPEG and PNG files are allowed.');
    }

    // Validate file size
    if($file['size'] > 1000000) {
        die('File size is too large. Maximum file size allowed is 1MB.');
    }

    // Process the file
    // Add your file processing code here
}

Keywords

file uploads HTTP security validation error handling

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