What are some common pitfalls when handling form data in PHP?

One common pitfall when handling form data in PHP is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. To mitigate this risk, always use functions like `htmlspecialchars()` or `mysqli_real_escape_string()` to sanitize user input before using it in SQL queries or displaying it on the webpage. 

// Sanitize user input using htmlspecialchars()
$name = htmlspecialchars($_POST['name']);
$email = htmlspecialchars($_POST['email']);

// Sanitize user input using mysqli_real_escape_string()
$conn = mysqli_connect("localhost", "username", "password", "database");
$name = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_POST['name']);
$email = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_POST['email']);

Keywords

SQL injection cross-site scripting validation sanitization htmlspecialchars

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