What are the potential pitfalls of transferring data from a PHP script to an HTML file for display?

One potential pitfall of transferring data from a PHP script to an HTML file for display is the risk of exposing sensitive information if not handled properly. To mitigate this, it is important to sanitize and validate the data before passing it to the HTML file. Additionally, ensure that the data is properly escaped to prevent any potential cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

<?php
// Sample data to be transferred
$data = "<script>alert('XSS attack!')</script>";

// Sanitize and escape the data before passing it to the HTML file
$sanitized_data = htmlspecialchars($data);

// Display the data in the HTML file
echo "<p>Data: $sanitized_data</p>";
?>