What is the purpose of using cookies in PHP and what potential issues can arise with their implementation?

Issue: One potential issue with using cookies in PHP is that they can be vulnerable to attacks such as cross-site scripting (XSS) or cross-site request forgery (CSRF). To mitigate these risks, it is important to properly sanitize and validate cookie data before using it in your application.

// Sanitize and validate cookie data before using it
if(isset($_COOKIE['user_id'])){
    $user_id = filter_var($_COOKIE['user_id'], FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT);
    
    // Use the sanitized user_id in your application
}