What are some potential security risks associated with using mysqli in PHP, especially for beginners?

One potential security risk associated with using mysqli in PHP, especially for beginners, is the vulnerability to SQL injection attacks if user input is not properly sanitized. To mitigate this risk, it is crucial to use prepared statements with parameterized queries instead of directly inserting user input into SQL queries. 

// Example of using prepared statements with mysqli to prevent SQL injection

// Establish a connection to the database
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");

// Prepare a SQL statement with a placeholder for the user input
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?");

// Bind the user input to the placeholder
$stmt->bind_param("s", $username);

// Set the value of the user input
$username = $_POST['username'];

// Execute the prepared statement
$stmt->execute();

// Fetch the results
$result = $stmt->get_result();

// Process the results as needed
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    // Do something with the data
}

// Close the statement and the database connection
$stmt->close();
$mysqli->close();

Keywords

mysqli PHP security risks beginners vulnerabilities

Related Questions