What are some potential pitfalls of using $_POST data directly in SQL queries in PHP?

Using $_POST data directly in SQL queries can lead to SQL injection attacks, where malicious users can manipulate the input to execute unauthorized SQL commands. To prevent this, you should always sanitize and validate user input before using it in SQL queries. One way to do this is by using prepared statements with parameterized queries, which separate the SQL code from the user input. 

// Sanitize and validate user input before using it in SQL query
$name = filter_var($_POST['name'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

// Prepare a SQL query using prepared statements
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES (:name, :email)");
$stmt->bindParam(':name', $name);
$stmt->bindParam(':email', $email);
$stmt->execute();

Keywords

SQL injection security vulnerability prepared statements data sanitization mysqli_real_escape_string

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