What are the common pitfalls to avoid when handling form submission in PHP to ensure data security?

One common pitfall to avoid when handling form submission in PHP is not properly sanitizing and validating user input. This can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. To ensure data security, always sanitize and validate user input before processing it in your PHP code.

// Sanitize and validate user input
$name = filter_var($_POST['name'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

// Use prepared statements to prevent SQL injection
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES (:name, :email)");
$stmt->bindParam(':name', $name);
$stmt->bindParam(':email', $email);
$stmt->execute();