What are the potential security risks of allowing users to manipulate query parameters in URLs to access other user's data in PHP?

Allowing users to manipulate query parameters in URLs can lead to security risks such as SQL injection attacks, where malicious users can input SQL commands into the URL to access or modify other users' data. To prevent this, it is important to sanitize and validate all user inputs, including query parameters, before using them in database queries. 

// Sanitize and validate query parameters before using them in database queries
$user_id = filter_input(INPUT_GET, 'user_id', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT);

if ($user_id) {
    // Use the sanitized user_id in your database query
    $query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = :user_id";
    // Execute the query
} else {
    // Handle invalid user_id input
}

Keywords

SQL injection user input validation prepared statements cross-site scripting data privacy

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