What best practices should be followed when handling request parameters like GET and POST in PHP scripts?

When handling request parameters like GET and POST in PHP scripts, it is important to properly sanitize and validate the input to prevent security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks. It is also recommended to use prepared statements when interacting with a database to prevent SQL injection attacks. Additionally, always validate and sanitize user input before processing it in order to ensure the security and integrity of your application. 

// Example of sanitizing and validating GET parameter
$userId = isset($_GET['user_id']) ? filter_var($_GET['user_id'], FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT) : null;

// Example of sanitizing and validating POST parameter
$username = isset($_POST['username']) ? filter_var($_POST['username'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING) : null;

// Example of using prepared statement to prevent SQL injection
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username');
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$stmt->execute();

Keywords

Sanitization Validation htmlspecialchars filter_input SQL injection

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