Why is it important to ensure that all images being downloaded are of the correct file type in PHP?

It is important to ensure that all images being downloaded are of the correct file type in PHP to prevent security vulnerabilities such as malicious code execution or file upload attacks. One way to achieve this is by validating the file type before allowing the download to proceed. 

// Validate image file type before downloading
$allowedTypes = ['image/jpeg', 'image/png', 'image/gif'];
$fileType = mime_content_type($filePath);

if (!in_array($fileType, $allowedTypes)) {
    die("Invalid file type. Only JPEG, PNG, and GIF images are allowed.");
}

// Proceed with downloading the image
header('Content-Type: ' . $fileType);
readfile($filePath);

Keywords

file type validation image processing PHP functions MIME type checking security vulnerability

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