What best practices should be followed when handling shopping cart data and user input validation in PHP sessions?
When handling shopping cart data and user input validation in PHP sessions, it is important to sanitize and validate all user input to prevent SQL injection and XSS attacks. Additionally, always store sensitive data securely in the session and avoid storing credit card information in plain text. Implementing server-side validation and using prepared statements for database queries can help enhance security.
// Sanitize and validate user input
$username = filter_var($_POST['username'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$password = filter_var($_POST['password'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
// Implementing prepared statements for database queries
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username AND password = :password");
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->bindParam(':password', $password);
$stmt->execute();
// Storing sensitive data securely in the session
$_SESSION['user_id'] = $user_id;
$_SESSION['username'] = $username;