What best practices should be followed when handling session data in PHP forms?

When handling session data in PHP forms, it is important to ensure that the data is properly sanitized and validated to prevent security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. Additionally, it is recommended to store sensitive information in session variables securely by using encryption or hashing techniques. Lastly, always remember to unset or destroy session variables once they are no longer needed to prevent data leakage. 

// Start the session
session_start();

// Sanitize and validate form input
$username = filter_var($_POST['username'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$password = filter_var($_POST['password'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Store sensitive information securely in session variables
$_SESSION['username'] = hash('sha256', $username);
$_SESSION['password'] = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);

// Unset or destroy session variables when they are no longer needed
unset($_SESSION['username']);
unset($_SESSION['password']);

Keywords

session data PHP forms security encryption validation

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