What are the potential pitfalls of using GET parameters in PHP, as seen in the provided code example?

Using GET parameters in PHP can expose your application to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection attacks if the parameters are not properly sanitized. To mitigate this risk, it is important to validate and sanitize any user input received through GET parameters before using it in your application. 

// Sanitize the GET parameter before using it
$user_id = isset($_GET['user_id']) ? filter_var($_GET['user_id'], FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT) : null;

// Use prepared statements to prevent SQL injection
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE user_id = :user_id");
$stmt->bindParam(':user_id', $user_id, PDO::PARAM_INT);
$stmt->execute();

Keywords

GET parameters PHP security vulnerabilities SQL injection data validation

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