What potential pitfalls should PHP developers be aware of when using password authentication in forms?

One potential pitfall PHP developers should be aware of when using password authentication in forms is storing passwords in plaintext in the database, which can lead to security vulnerabilities if the database is compromised. To address this issue, developers should securely hash passwords before storing them in the database using functions like password_hash() and password_verify().

// Hashing the password before storing it in the database
$hashed_password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);

// Verifying the password during authentication
if (password_verify($input_password, $hashed_password)) {
    // Password is correct
} else {
    // Password is incorrect
}