Secure Login Implementation with PHP

Here's a step-by-step process for building a secure login system in PHP:

• 1. Use password_hash() to store passwords in a hashed format.
• 2. Prepare your database queries using PHP's PDO to avoid SQL injection.
• 3. Sanitize all inputs using functions like htmlspecialchars() to avoid XSS.

For implementation details, you can look at the following example code:

// Example PHP login code with hash:
$password = 'mysecretpassword';
$hash = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);

To create a secure login function in PHP, you should also consider the following:

• Always use HTTPS to make sure data isn't transferred in plain text.
• Implement proper session management using session_regenerate_id() after authentication.

Additionally, use prepared statements to prevent SQL injection like this:

$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = ?");
$stmt->execute([$email]);
$user = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
if ($user && password_verify($inputPassword, $user['password'])) {
    echo "You're logged in!";
}