What considerations should be made when creating a session for forum login on a website?

When creating a session for forum login on a website, it is important to consider security measures to protect user information. This includes using HTTPS for secure communication, hashing passwords before storing them in the database, and validating user input to prevent SQL injection attacks.

// Start a session
session_start();

// Validate user input
$username = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'username', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$password = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'password', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Hash the password
$hashed_password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);

// Check if the username and hashed password match in the database
// If they do, set session variables
if ($username == $db_username && password_verify($password, $db_password)) {
    $_SESSION['loggedin'] = true;
    $_SESSION['username'] = $username;
    // Redirect to forum page
    header('Location: forum.php');
    exit;
} else {
    // Display error message
    echo 'Invalid username or password';
}