What are the key differences between validating user input with strip_tags and implementing more comprehensive security measures in PHP scripts?

When validating user input with strip_tags, only HTML tags are removed from the input, leaving potential vulnerabilities like SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. To implement more comprehensive security measures in PHP scripts, it is essential to use functions like htmlspecialchars and prepared statements to prevent these types of attacks. 

// Using strip_tags to validate user input
$userInput = "<script>alert('XSS attack!')</script>";
$cleanInput = strip_tags($userInput);

echo $cleanInput; // Output: alert('XSS attack!')

// Implementing more comprehensive security measures
$unsafeInput = "<script>alert('XSS attack!')</script>";
$safeInput = htmlspecialchars($unsafeInput, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');

// Using prepared statements to prevent SQL injection
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?");
$stmt->execute([$username]);

Keywords

strip_tags user input validation security measures PHP scripts XSS vulnerabilities

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