What are the potential pitfalls of directly storing user data in text files in PHP applications?

Storing user data directly in text files in PHP applications can lead to security vulnerabilities such as exposing sensitive information, lack of data validation, and potential data corruption. To mitigate these risks, it is recommended to use a secure database management system like MySQL or PostgreSQL to store user data securely. 

// Example of securely storing user data in a MySQL database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "myDB";

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

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

// SQL query to insert user data
$sql = "INSERT INTO users (username, email, password) VALUES ('JohnDoe', 'johndoe@example.com', 'password123')";

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

// Close connection
$conn->close();

Keywords

security file permissions data validation SQL injection encryption

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