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What potential security risks are associated with using exec() or shell_exec() functions in PHP?

Using exec() or shell_exec() functions in PHP can pose security risks as they allow for the execution of shell commands on the server. This can lead to command injection attacks if user input is not properly sanitized. To mitigate this risk, it is important to validate and sanitize all user input before passing it to these functions.

php 
$user_input = $_POST['input'];
$validated_input = escapeshellarg($user_input);
$output = shell_exec("ls " . $validated_input);
echo $output;

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