What potential issues can arise when trying to display external images using PHP?

One potential issue when trying to display external images using PHP is the risk of security vulnerabilities, such as remote code execution or cross-site scripting attacks. To mitigate this risk, it is important to validate and sanitize the URL of the external image before displaying it on the webpage. This can be done by using PHP functions like filter_var() with the FILTER_VALIDATE_URL filter.

// Validate and sanitize the URL of the external image
$externalImageUrl = filter_var($externalImageUrl, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL);

// Display the external image on the webpage
echo '<img src="' . $externalImageUrl . '" alt="External Image">';