What best practices should be followed when generating and processing form data in PHP?

When generating and processing form data in PHP, it is important to 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, implementing CSRF tokens can help prevent cross-site request forgery attacks. 

// Sanitize and validate form input
$name = filter_var($_POST['name'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

// Use prepared statements to interact with the database
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES (:name, :email)");
$stmt->bindParam(':name', $name);
$stmt->bindParam(':email', $email);
$stmt->execute();

// Implement CSRF tokens
$token = bin2hex(random_bytes(32));
$_SESSION['csrf_token'] = $token;

// In the form
<input type="hidden" name="csrf_token" value="<?php echo $token; ?>">

// Verify CSRF token on form submission
if($_POST['csrf_token'] !== $_SESSION['csrf_token']) {
    // Handle invalid CSRF token
}

Keywords

validation sanitization CSRF protection input filtering secure coding practices

Related Questions