What are the best practices for updating PHP files on a server to avoid security vulnerabilities?
To avoid security vulnerabilities when updating PHP files on a server, it is important to regularly update PHP to the latest stable version, use secure coding practices, and sanitize user input to prevent SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks.
<?php
// Example of sanitizing user input to prevent SQL injection
$username = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_POST['username']);
$password = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_POST['password']);
// Use prepared statements to prevent SQL injection
$stmt = $conn->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("s", $username);
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt->get_result();
?>