What are the potential pitfalls of using the deprecated function session_register() in PHP for user authentication?

Using the deprecated function session_register() in PHP for user authentication can lead to security vulnerabilities and compatibility issues with newer versions of PHP. It is recommended to use the $_SESSION superglobal array directly to store and access session variables instead.

<?php
session_start();

// Store user authentication information in the session
$_SESSION['username'] = 'example_user';
$_SESSION['is_authenticated'] = true;

// Access user authentication information from the session
if($_SESSION['is_authenticated']) {
    echo 'User is authenticated as ' . $_SESSION['username'];
}
?>