What are the potential security risks of using functions like htmlentities, stripslashes, and mysql_real_escape_string in PHP?

Using functions like htmlentities, stripslashes, and mysql_real_escape_string in PHP can help prevent SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks. However, relying solely on these functions may not provide comprehensive security. It is important to also use prepared statements with parameterized queries to further protect against SQL injection attacks. 

// Example of using prepared statements with parameterized queries to prevent SQL injection
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");

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

// Using prepared statements with parameterized queries
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("s", $username);

// Set parameters and execute
$username = $_POST['username'];
$stmt->execute();

// Fetch results
$result = $stmt->get_result();
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    // Process results
}

// Close statement and connection
$stmt->close();
$mysqli->close();

Keywords

security risks htmlentities stripslashes mysql_real_escape_string PHP

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