What are the consequences of not properly handling file opening and reading operations in PHP scripts?

Improper handling of file opening and reading operations in PHP scripts can lead to security vulnerabilities such as directory traversal attacks, file inclusion vulnerabilities, and potential data leaks. To prevent these issues, always validate user input, sanitize file paths, and use proper error handling mechanisms.

$file = 'example.txt';

if (strpos($file, '..') !== false) {
    die('Invalid file path');
}

$handle = fopen($file, 'r');
if ($handle === false) {
    die('Unable to open file');
}

$data = fread($handle, filesize($file));
fclose($handle);

echo $data;