What are the potential pitfalls of using $_POST for variables in PHP?

Using $_POST directly for variables in PHP can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection attacks or cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks if the input is not properly sanitized. To mitigate these risks, it is important to sanitize and validate user input before using it in your application. 

// Sanitize and validate user input before using it
$username = isset($_POST['username']) ? htmlspecialchars($_POST['username']) : '';
$email = isset($_POST['email']) ? filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL) : '';

Keywords

$_POST variables security injection validation

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