What are the security concerns related to external form filling and how can they be addressed in PHP development?

Security concerns related to external form filling in PHP development include potential injection attacks, data manipulation, and unauthorized access to sensitive information. To address these concerns, developers should validate and sanitize all input data to prevent malicious code execution and ensure that only authenticated users can access and submit forms.

// Validate and sanitize input data
$name = isset($_POST['name']) ? filter_var($_POST['name'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING) : '';
$email = isset($_POST['email']) ? filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL) : '';
$message = isset($_POST['message']) ? filter_var($_POST['message'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING) : '';

// Check if user is authenticated before processing form submission
if (isset($_SESSION['user_id'])) {
    // Process form submission
    // Your code here
} else {
    // Redirect unauthorized users
    header("Location: login.php");
    exit();
}