What best practices should be followed when handling password expiration and authentication in PHP applications?

When handling password expiration and authentication in PHP applications, it is important to follow best practices to ensure the security of user accounts. This includes implementing password expiration policies to prompt users to change their passwords regularly and using strong hashing algorithms to securely store passwords in the database. 

// Check if the user's password needs to be changed based on expiration date
function isPasswordExpired($expirationDate) {
    $currentDate = new DateTime();
    $expirationDate = new DateTime($expirationDate);
    
    if ($currentDate > $expirationDate) {
        return true;
    } else {
        return false;
    }
}

// Example usage
$expirationDate = '2022-01-01'; // Get expiration date from database
if (isPasswordExpired($expirationDate)) {
    // Prompt user to change password
    echo 'Your password has expired. Please change it.';
}

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