What potential issues can arise from using the mysql_* functions in PHP for authentication and session handling?

Using the mysql_* functions in PHP for authentication and session handling can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection attacks and deprecated functionality. To solve this issue, it is recommended to use parameterized queries with PDO or mysqli functions for database interactions.

// Connect to the database using PDO
$dsn = 'mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase';
$username = 'username';
$password = 'password';
$options = array(
    PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION,
    PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES => false
);
try {
    $pdo = new PDO($dsn, $username, $password, $options);
} catch (PDOException $e) {
    die('Connection failed: ' . $e->getMessage());
}