What are the potential risks of hardcoding user-specific page mappings in PHP code, and how can these risks be mitigated?

Hardcoding user-specific page mappings in PHP code can lead to security vulnerabilities as sensitive information may be exposed if the code is accessed by unauthorized users. To mitigate this risk, it is recommended to store user-specific mappings in a secure database or configuration file outside of the codebase.

// Load user-specific page mappings from a configuration file
$config = parse_ini_file('user_mappings.ini');

// Use the mappings to redirect users to the appropriate page
if (isset($config[$_SESSION['user_id']])) {
    header('Location: ' . $config[$_SESSION['user_id']]);
    exit;
} else {
    // Handle invalid user mappings
    echo 'Invalid user mapping';
}