What potential security risks are associated with using $_GET variables in PHP?

Using $_GET variables in PHP can pose security risks such as SQL injection attacks and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. To mitigate these risks, it is important to sanitize and validate any input received from $_GET variables before using them in your code.

// Sanitize and validate input from $_GET variable
$id = isset($_GET['id']) ? filter_var($_GET['id'], FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT) : null;

// Use the sanitized input in your code
if ($id !== null) {
    // Perform actions with the sanitized $id
}