What are the potential security risks associated with using exec() in PHP to interact with external processes?

Using exec() in PHP to interact with external processes can pose security risks such as command injection attacks if user input is not properly sanitized. To mitigate this risk, it is important to always validate and sanitize user input before passing it to exec(). Additionally, using escapeshellarg() or escapeshellcmd() functions can help prevent command injection vulnerabilities. 

$user_input = $_POST['input'];
$validated_input = escapeshellarg($user_input);
exec("command " . $validated_input);

Keywords

exec PHP security risks external processes vulnerabilities

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