What potential issues can arise when implementing a PHP form for joining a website or application?

One potential issue when implementing a PHP form for joining a website or application is the lack of validation for user input, which can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. To solve this, it is important to sanitize and validate user input before processing it in the backend.

// Sanitize and validate user input
$username = filter_var($_POST['username'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

// Prevent SQL injection
$username = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $username);
$email = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $email);