What are the potential risks of not escaping user input in PHP when dealing with SQL queries?

Not escaping user input in PHP when dealing with SQL queries can leave your application vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. This means that malicious users can manipulate the input to execute unauthorized SQL commands, potentially leading to data loss or unauthorized access to your database. To prevent this, always escape user input before using it in SQL queries using functions like `mysqli_real_escape_string()` or prepared statements. 

// Example of escaping user input using mysqli_real_escape_string
$input = $_POST['username'];
$escaped_input = mysqli_real_escape_string($connection, $input);

$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = '$escaped_input'";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

Keywords

SQL injection user input security vulnerability prepared statements escaping data

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