What are the potential pitfalls of using a simple member area script in PHP?

One potential pitfall of using a simple member area script in PHP is the lack of security measures, such as proper validation and sanitization of user input. This can leave the script vulnerable to SQL injection attacks, cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, and other security threats. To mitigate these risks, it is important to implement secure coding practices, such as using prepared statements for database queries and validating user input before processing it.

// Example of using prepared statements to prevent SQL injection

// Establish a database connection
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase', 'username', 'password');

// Prepare a SQL statement with a placeholder for user input
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username');

// Bind the user input to the placeholder
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $_POST['username']);

// Execute the statement
$stmt->execute();

// Fetch the results
$results = $stmt->fetchAll();