What best practices should be followed when managing session variables in PHP to avoid unexpected behavior?

When managing session variables in PHP, it is important to follow best practices such as validating and sanitizing user input before storing it in session variables, avoiding storing sensitive information in session variables, and properly setting session configurations to prevent session hijacking or fixation attacks. 

// Start the session
session_start();

// Validate and sanitize user input before storing in session variables
$_SESSION['username'] = filter_var($_POST['username'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Avoid storing sensitive information in session variables
$_SESSION['user_id'] = $user_id;

// Set session configurations to prevent session hijacking or fixation attacks
ini_set('session.cookie_httponly', 1);
ini_set('session.cookie_secure', 1);

Keywords

session variables PHP unexpected behavior management best practices

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