What are the potential pitfalls of using incorrect variables and not utilizing proper form submission methods in PHP scripts?

Using incorrect variables or not utilizing proper form submission methods in PHP scripts can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. It can also cause unexpected behavior in your application and make it difficult to debug and maintain. To solve this issue, always validate and sanitize user input, use prepared statements for database queries, and make sure to properly handle form submissions.

// Example of using correct variables and proper form submission method
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
    $username = $_POST["username"];
    $password = $_POST["password"];
    
    // Validate and sanitize user input
    $username = filter_var($username, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
    $password = filter_var($password, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
    
    // Use prepared statements for database queries
    $stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username AND password = :password");
    $stmt->execute(['username' => $username, 'password' => $password]);
    
    // Handle form submission
    // Add your logic here
}