What security measures should be taken into consideration when developing a PHP script for forum administration tasks?

When developing a PHP script for forum administration tasks, it is crucial to implement proper security measures to prevent unauthorized access and protect sensitive data. Some key security measures to consider include input validation to prevent SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks, implementing secure authentication and authorization mechanisms, and using prepared statements for database queries to prevent SQL injection. 

<?php
// Validate input to prevent SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks
$username = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'username', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$password = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'password', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Implement secure authentication and authorization mechanisms
if ($username === 'admin' && $password === 'password') {
    // User is authenticated as admin, perform forum administration tasks
} else {
    // User is not authorized to access forum administration tasks
    die('Unauthorized access');
}

// Use prepared statements for database queries to prevent SQL injection
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username');
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->execute();
$user = $stmt->fetch();

Keywords

SQL injection cross-site scripting input validation session management secure file handling

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