What are some common pitfalls to avoid when using PHP for login systems, and how can they be mitigated in this specific code snippet?

One common pitfall in PHP login systems is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to SQL injection attacks. To mitigate this, use prepared statements with parameterized queries to prevent malicious SQL injection. Additionally, always hash passwords using a strong hashing algorithm like bcrypt to securely store them in the database. 

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

```php
// Hashing passwords with bcrypt
$hashed_password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_BCRYPT);

Keywords

SQL injection password hashing session management CSRF protection secure cookies

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