What are the best practices for authenticating users in PHP applications to prevent unauthorized access to scripts and parameters?

To prevent unauthorized access to scripts and parameters in PHP applications, it is essential to implement user authentication. This involves verifying the identity of users before allowing them to access sensitive scripts or parameters. One common approach is to use sessions to store user credentials securely and check them on each page request.

session_start();

// Check if the user is logged in
if (!isset($_SESSION['user_id'])) {
    // Redirect to login page or display an error message
    header("Location: login.php");
    exit();
}

// Additional code to execute if the user is authenticated
// For example, accessing sensitive scripts or parameters