What are the potential security risks associated with using $_GET variables in PHP?

Using $_GET variables in PHP can pose security risks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and data manipulation attacks. To mitigate these risks, it is important to sanitize and validate any user input received through $_GET variables before using them in your code.

// Sanitize and validate $_GET variable before using it
$user_id = isset($_GET['user_id']) ? filter_var($_GET['user_id'], FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT) : null;

if ($user_id) {
    // Proceed with using the sanitized and validated $user_id variable
} else {
    // Handle invalid input or display an error message
}