What does base64_encoded mean in the context of executing shell commands in PHP?

When executing shell commands in PHP, it is important to properly encode any user input to prevent command injection vulnerabilities. One common method is to use base64 encoding to safely pass data to shell commands. This ensures that special characters are handled correctly and the input is not interpreted as part of the command itself. 

// Example of executing a shell command with base64 encoding in PHP
$user_input = "example_input";
$encoded_input = base64_encode($user_input);
$command = "echo " . $encoded_input . " | base64 -d"; // Decodes the base64 input
$output = shell_exec($command);

echo $output;

Keywords

base64_encoded shell commands PHP encoding security

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