What are the potential security risks associated with using the mysql_ extension in PHP?

The mysql_ extension in PHP is deprecated and has been removed as of PHP 7.0 due to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection attacks. To mitigate these risks, it is recommended to switch to the mysqli or PDO extension, which offer prepared statements and parameterized queries to prevent SQL injection.

// Connect to MySQL using mysqli extension
$mysqli = new mysqli('localhost', 'username', 'password', 'database');

// Check connection
if ($mysqli->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $mysqli->connect_error);
}