What potential pitfalls should be considered when trying to extract user information using $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] in PHP?

When trying to extract user information using $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] in PHP, potential pitfalls to consider include the fact that user agents can be easily spoofed or manipulated, leading to unreliable data. To mitigate this risk, it's recommended to use additional validation and sanitization techniques to ensure the integrity of the user agent data being extracted. 

$userAgent = isset($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']) ? $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] : '';

// Validate and sanitize the user agent data
$cleanUserAgent = filter_var($userAgent, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Now you can use $cleanUserAgent safely in your application

Keywords

$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] user information extraction security vulnerabilities data validation

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