What are the potential risks of allowing direct access to header and footer files in a PHP website?

Allowing direct access to header and footer files in a PHP website can pose security risks as it may expose sensitive information or allow malicious users to manipulate the design or functionality of the site. To mitigate these risks, it is recommended to include header and footer files using PHP include or require functions, rather than allowing direct access to the files. 

// Include header in your PHP files
include 'header.php';

// Include footer in your PHP files
include 'footer.php';

Keywords

security risks code injection cross-site scripting unauthorized access data leakage

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