What common pitfalls should PHP developers be aware of when passing variables via GET requests?

One common pitfall when passing variables via GET requests in PHP is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection attacks. To mitigate this risk, developers should always validate and sanitize input data before using it in their code.

// Sanitize input data from GET request
$user_input = isset($_GET['user_input']) ? htmlspecialchars($_GET['user_input']) : '';

// Use the sanitized input data in your code
echo "User input: " . $user_input;