What are the potential pitfalls of directly accessing $_GET variables without proper validation or error handling in PHP?

Directly accessing $_GET variables without validation or error handling can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. To mitigate these risks, always validate and sanitize input from $_GET before using it in your application. 

// Validate and sanitize the $_GET variable before using it
$id = isset($_GET['id']) ? filter_var($_GET['id'], FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT) : null;

if ($id !== null) {
    // Use the sanitized $id in your application
    // For example, querying a database with the sanitized id
} else {
    // Handle the case where the id is not valid
}

Keywords

$_GET variables validation error handling security vulnerabilities injection attacks

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