What are the potential drawbacks of using a txt file for storing IP addresses in a PHP voting script?

Storing IP addresses in a txt file for a PHP voting script can pose security risks, as the file may be accessible to unauthorized users. To mitigate this risk, it is recommended to store IP addresses in a secure database instead. This will ensure that the data is protected and only accessible to authorized users. 

// Connect to a MySQL database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "voting_db";

$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

// Store IP address in the database
$ip_address = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$sql = "INSERT INTO ip_addresses (ip_address) VALUES ('$ip_address')";

if ($conn->query($sql) === TRUE) {
    echo "IP address stored successfully";
} else {
    echo "Error: " . $sql . "<br>" . $conn->error;
}

$conn->close();

Keywords

txt file IP addresses PHP voting script drawbacks

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