What potential security risks are associated with the current PHP code structure?

One potential security risk associated with the current PHP code structure is the use of unsanitized user input in SQL queries, which can lead to SQL injection attacks. To mitigate this risk, input validation and parameterized queries should be used to prevent malicious SQL injection attempts.

// Original vulnerable code
$user_input = $_POST['username'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = '$user_input'";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Fixed code using parameterized queries
$user_input = $_POST['username'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?";
$stmt = mysqli_prepare($connection, $query);
mysqli_stmt_bind_param($stmt, "s", $user_input);
mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);
$result = mysqli_stmt_get_result($stmt);