What potential pitfalls should be considered when using include statements within PHP?

One potential pitfall when using include statements in PHP is the possibility of including files from untrusted sources, which could lead to security vulnerabilities such as code injection or malicious file execution. To mitigate this risk, it is important to validate and sanitize input before using it in include statements. Additionally, using absolute paths instead of relative paths can help prevent unintended file inclusions. 

// Validate and sanitize input before using it in include statements
$filename = filter_var($_GET['file'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Use absolute paths instead of relative paths to prevent unintended file inclusions
include '/path/to/includes/' . $filename;

Keywords

file inclusion security vulnerabilities remote code execution path traversal include_once

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