What potential issue is the user facing when comparing a GET variable with the contents of a text file in PHP?

The potential issue the user is facing is that the contents of the GET variable may not be sanitized properly, which could lead to security vulnerabilities such as code injection or XSS attacks. To solve this issue, it is important to sanitize the GET variable before comparing it with the contents of a text file. This can be done by using PHP's filter_input() function with the FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING filter. 

// Sanitize the GET variable
$user_input = filter_input(INPUT_GET, 'user_input', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Compare the sanitized GET variable with the contents of a text file
$file_contents = file_get_contents('file.txt');

if ($user_input === $file_contents) {
    // Perform desired action
} else {
    // Handle the case where the comparison fails
}

Keywords

GET variable text file comparison file_get_contents data type conversion

Related Questions