What are the potential pitfalls of using $_REQUEST in PHP and how can it be replaced with more secure alternatives?

Using $_REQUEST in PHP can be a security risk as it combines data from $_GET, $_POST, and $_COOKIE superglobals, making it vulnerable to injection attacks. To replace it with more secure alternatives, you can use $_GET or $_POST directly based on your specific needs, or use filter_input() function with appropriate filter flags to sanitize input data. 

// Using $_GET directly
$variable = isset($_GET['variable']) ? $_GET['variable'] : '';

// Using $_POST directly
$variable = isset($_POST['variable']) ? $_POST['variable'] : '';

// Using filter_input() with filter flags
$variable = filter_input(INPUT_GET, 'variable', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

Keywords

$_REQUEST security alternatives vulnerabilities data validation

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