What are some common pitfalls to avoid when handling user authentication and data retrieval in PHP applications?

One common pitfall to avoid is storing passwords in plain text in the database. Instead, passwords should be hashed before being stored to enhance security. Another pitfall is not validating user input, which can lead to SQL injection attacks. Always sanitize and validate user input before using it in database queries. 

// Storing passwords securely by hashing them before storing
$password = password_hash($_POST['password'], PASSWORD_DEFAULT);

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

// Using prepared statements for database queries
$stmt = $conn->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("s", $username);
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt->get_result();

Keywords

SQL injection password hashing session management CSRF protection error handling

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