What best practices should be followed when dynamically updating PHP configuration settings using user input?

When dynamically updating PHP configuration settings using user input, it is important to validate and sanitize the user input to prevent security vulnerabilities such as code injection. Additionally, only allow authorized users to update configuration settings to avoid unauthorized changes. It is also recommended to log all changes made to the configuration settings for auditing purposes.

// Validate and sanitize user input
$user_input = $_POST['config_setting'];
$validated_input = filter_var($user_input, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Check if user is authorized to update configuration settings
if ($user_is_authorized) {
    // Update configuration setting
    ini_set('config_setting', $validated_input);
    
    // Log the change
    $log_message = "Configuration setting 'config_setting' updated to: " . $validated_input;
    file_put_contents('config_log.txt', $log_message . PHP_EOL, FILE_APPEND);
} else {
    echo "Unauthorized to update configuration settings.";
}