What are the potential security risks of transmitting variables through URLs in PHP?

Transmitting variables through URLs in PHP can expose sensitive information and lead to security risks such as data manipulation, injection attacks, and unauthorized access. To mitigate these risks, it is recommended to sanitize and validate input data before using it in your application.

// Sanitize and validate input data from URL parameters
$id = isset($_GET['id']) ? filter_var($_GET['id'], FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT) : null;

if ($id === null || $id === false) {
    // Handle invalid input
    die("Invalid ID parameter");
}

// Use the sanitized and validated variable in your application
// For example, querying a database using the $id variable