What are the potential risks of automating the execution of links in a PHP script?

Automating the execution of links in a PHP script can pose security risks such as allowing malicious links to be executed without user consent, leading to potential data breaches or unauthorized access to sensitive information. To mitigate this risk, it is important to validate and sanitize all input data, especially when dealing with links or URLs in a PHP script.

// Validate and sanitize the input URL before executing it
$url = filter_var($_GET['url'], FILTER_SANITIZE_URL);

if (filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL)) {
    // Execute the sanitized URL
    header("Location: $url");
} else {
    // Handle invalid URL input
    echo "Invalid URL";
}