What are the potential pitfalls of relying on session variables for user levels in PHP?

Potential pitfalls of relying on session variables for user levels in PHP include security vulnerabilities such as session hijacking or session fixation. To mitigate these risks, it is recommended to store user levels in a more secure manner, such as in a database, and only use session variables for temporary storage during a user's session. 

// Example of securely storing user levels in a database
// Assume $db is a PDO database connection

// Retrieve user level from database based on user ID
$user_id = $_SESSION['user_id'];
$stmt = $db->prepare("SELECT user_level FROM users WHERE id = :user_id");
$stmt->bindParam(':user_id', $user_id);
$stmt->execute();
$user = $stmt->fetch();

// Store user level in a session variable
$_SESSION['user_level'] = $user['user_level'];

Keywords

session variables user levels security vulnerabilities authentication authorization

Related Questions