What is the potential issue with using $HTTP_POST_VARS in PHP and what should be used instead?

Using $HTTP_POST_VARS in PHP is not recommended as it is a deprecated feature and has been removed in newer versions of PHP. Instead, you should use the $_POST superglobal array to access POST data in PHP.

// Using $_POST instead of $HTTP_POST_VARS
if(isset($_POST['username'])) {
    $username = $_POST['username'];
    // Rest of your code here
}