What are the potential drawbacks of setting the document root to a specific folder in PHP?

Setting the document root to a specific folder in PHP can potentially limit the access to files and folders outside of that specific directory, which can cause issues when trying to include or require files from other locations in the project. To solve this issue, it is recommended to use absolute paths when including or requiring files in PHP to ensure that the files are accessed correctly regardless of the document root setting. 

// Use absolute paths when including or requiring files
include_once $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/path/to/file.php';

Keywords

document root security vulnerability file inclusion path traversal access control

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