What are some common security vulnerabilities in PHP applications that can lead to .htaccess manipulation?

One common security vulnerability in PHP applications that can lead to .htaccess manipulation is improper input validation, allowing attackers to inject malicious code into the .htaccess file. To prevent this, always sanitize and validate user input before using it to write to the .htaccess file. Example PHP code snippet to prevent .htaccess manipulation:

$user_input = $_POST['user_input'];

// Sanitize and validate user input
$sanitized_input = filter_var($user_input, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Write sanitized input to .htaccess file
file_put_contents('.htaccess', $sanitized_input);