What are some common pitfalls when including external PHP files in a webpage using form actions?

One common pitfall when including external PHP files in a webpage using form actions is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. To solve this issue, always validate and sanitize user input before using it in your PHP code.

// Example of sanitizing user input before using it in PHP code
$username = isset($_POST['username']) ? htmlspecialchars($_POST['username']) : '';
$password = isset($_POST['password']) ? htmlspecialchars($_POST['password']) : '';