What are the best practices for handling remote file inclusions in PHP to ensure data integrity and security?

Remote file inclusions in PHP can pose a security risk as it allows an attacker to execute malicious code on the server. To prevent this, it is best to avoid including remote files altogether. If remote file inclusions are necessary, always validate and sanitize user input to ensure that only trusted sources are included. 

// Validate and sanitize user input before including remote files
$allowed_sources = ['https://example.com/file.php', 'https://trustedsource.com/file.php'];

if (in_array($_GET['file'], $allowed_sources)) {
    include($_GET['file']);
} else {
    // Handle error or log unauthorized access attempt
}

Keywords

remote file inclusions data integrity security PHP functions libraries error types

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