What security considerations should be taken into account when adding custom PHP functionality to a forum?

When adding custom PHP functionality to a forum, it is crucial to consider security measures to prevent vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and unauthorized access. One way to enhance security is to sanitize user input and validate data before processing it in the custom PHP code. 

// Example of sanitizing user input in PHP
$userInput = $_POST['user_input'];
$cleanInput = htmlspecialchars(strip_tags(trim($userInput));

Keywords

SQL injection cross-site scripting input validation session management secure coding practices

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