What are the best practices for data validation and sanitization in web application development?
Data validation and sanitization are crucial in web application development to ensure the security and integrity of user input. Best practices include: input validation, output encoding, using prepared statements or parameterized queries, implementing a content security policy, and regularly updating and patching frameworks and libraries. Input validation helps prevent malicious data from being processed, such as script injections or SQL injection attacks. Output encoding helps protect against cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. Prepared statements or parameterized queries prevent SQL injection attacks. Implementing a content security policy restricts the types of content that can be loaded on a web page, reducing the risk of code injection attacks. Regularly updating frameworks and libraries helps address any vulnerabilities and security issues that may arise.