What are the potential pitfalls of passing data between PHP scripts using includes?

Passing data between PHP scripts using includes can lead to potential security vulnerabilities if the data is not properly sanitized or validated. To mitigate this risk, it is important to validate and sanitize any user input before passing it between scripts. Additionally, using a centralized data handling approach, such as using functions or classes to handle data passing, can help ensure data integrity and security.

// Example of passing data between PHP scripts using functions

// script1.php
$data = "example data";
include 'script2.php';

// script2.php
function processData($data) {
    // Validate and sanitize the data here
    echo "Processed data: " . $data;
}

processData($data);