What common pitfalls should PHP beginners be aware of when creating user accounts?

One common pitfall for PHP beginners when creating user accounts is storing passwords in plain text. This is a major security risk as it exposes user passwords if the database is compromised. To address this issue, passwords should be securely hashed before being stored in the database using functions like password_hash(). 

// Hashing the user's password before storing it in the database
$password = $_POST['password'];
$hashed_password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);

// Storing the hashed password in the database
$query = "INSERT INTO users (username, password) VALUES ('$username', '$hashed_password')";
// Execute the query

Keywords

SQL injection password hashing session management form validation cross-site scripting

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