What are the common pitfalls to avoid when editing PHP scripts for specific functionalities?
One common pitfall to avoid when editing PHP scripts for specific functionalities is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. To solve this issue, always use functions like htmlentities() or htmlspecialchars() to sanitize user input before using it in your scripts.
// Example of sanitizing user input using htmlentities()
$user_input = "<script>alert('XSS attack!')</script>";
$clean_input = htmlentities($user_input);
echo $clean_input;