What are the best practices for handling user input validation in PHP to prevent injection attacks?

User input validation is crucial in preventing injection attacks in PHP. To handle user input validation effectively, it is best practice to use prepared statements with parameterized queries to prevent SQL injection attacks. Additionally, sanitizing and validating user input using functions like filter_input() or htmlspecialchars() can help prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. 

// Example of handling user input validation in PHP to prevent injection attacks

// Using prepared statements to prevent SQL injection
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username");
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->execute();

// Sanitizing user input to prevent XSS attacks
$clean_input = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'input_field', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Using htmlspecialchars to prevent XSS attacks
$safe_input = htmlspecialchars($_POST['input_field']);

Keywords

SQL injection input sanitization prepared statements htmlspecialchars filter_input

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