What are the potential challenges or limitations faced when developing a custom CMS with PHP for web design projects?

One potential challenge when developing a custom CMS with PHP is ensuring the security of user data and preventing vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. To address this, it is important to sanitize user input, use prepared statements for database queries, and implement proper validation and authentication mechanisms.

// Sanitize user input
$clean_input = filter_var($_POST['user_input'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Use prepared statements for database queries
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username');
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $clean_input);
$stmt->execute();

// Implement validation and authentication mechanisms
if ($user_authenticated) {
    // Allow access to protected content
} else {
    // Redirect to login page
}