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Asked 3 years ago
9 Jun 2021
Views 253
angeo

angeo posted

Sanitizing PHP Variables, am I overusing it?

Sanitizing PHP Variables, am I overusing it?
dilip

dilip
answered Apr 26 '23 00:00

It's important to sanitize user input in PHP to prevent security vulnerabilities like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. However, it's possible to over-sanitize data and remove useful information or make it harder to work with the data.

When sanitizing PHP variables, it's important to strike a balance between removing potentially harmful characters and preserving the integrity of the data. Here are some general guidelines:

Sanitize data at the appropriate time: Sanitize data as soon as possible after it is received from the user. This will help prevent vulnerabilities in the application.

Use specific sanitization functions: Use specific sanitization functions like filter_var() or htmlspecialchars() to sanitize user input. Avoid using generic functions like strip_tags() or trim() because they may remove useful information.

Validate input before sanitizing: Validate user input before sanitizing it. This ensures that the input is in the expected format and reduces the chance of sanitizing valid input.

Avoid over-sanitizing: Do not remove information that may be useful. For example, removing all spaces from a string may make it harder to read or work with the data.

Use prepared statements for database queries: Prepared statements can help prevent SQL injection attacks by automatically escaping special characters in user input.

In summary, it's important to sanitize user input in PHP to prevent security vulnerabilities, but it's also important to strike a balance between removing potentially harmful characters and preserving the integrity of the data.
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