What are some potential pitfalls or challenges when developing a custom CMS in PHP with self-programmed functions?

One potential pitfall when developing a custom CMS in PHP with self-programmed functions is the risk of introducing security vulnerabilities if proper input validation and sanitization are not implemented. To mitigate this risk, always validate and sanitize user input before using it in your functions to prevent SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and other common security threats.

// Example of input validation and sanitization using filter_var function
$user_input = $_POST['user_input'];
$filtered_input = filter_var($user_input, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
// Use $filtered_input in your functions to prevent security vulnerabilities