Creating a secure e-commerce website is critical for businesses to be competitive in the current digital marketing environment. Core PHP is still the most widely used and robust backend language for building high-performing, dynamic, and unique web applications and remains a viable choice, particularly for startups and small to medium-sized enterprises. However, security should always be the first thought for any e-commerce website before anything else. Let’s talk about the best practices of building a secure e-commerce website using core PHP with an e-commerce development company in Riyadh.

1. Strong Architecture Is Essential

When building an e-commerce platform, it is important to start with a secure, scalable architecture. Unlike using frameworks, building with core PHP requires you to build a structure. As with most code, it is important to organize it properly. This means separating business logic, database operations, and UI components. As a result of the modularity, you will find that these code segments will be easier to secure and maintain.

2. Secure User Authentication

The user login and registration system is usually the most exploited area. A secure user authentication would use password hashing (for example, password_hash and password_verify). PHP and functions provide methods that store and verify passwords securely. Avoid using MD5 and SHA1, as they are no longer secure methods.

3. Validate and Sanitize User Input

All input must be validated, no matter if users are entering addresses, emails, or payment information. To help protect your app from SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, you need to use functions to validate and clean up data.

4. Use HTTPS Everywhere

All e-commerce websites must use HTTPS by default. The SSL certificate will encrypt the data in transit from the server to the client. It is important to force HTTPS redirection on all pages, not just the checkout page!

5. Mitigate CSRF attacks

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks can be avoided by using tokens in forms. Each form should generate its own CSRF token to be checked upon the form being submitted. The token can be stored in the session and placed in a hidden field.

6. Logging and error handling

It is good practice to log the error details to a secure server file while only showing the user a generic error. Do not display the full stack trace or any sensitive information in production. Logging activity is important for tracking suspicious activity, as well as helping in debugging your application.

7. Limit File Uploads and Executable Scripts

Firstly, if anything on your site has file uploads (for example, product images), you need to limit file types and their file sizes. You should rename file uploads and place them outside of the web root if possible. Likewise, you should use PHP's prefix functionalities to check for types and never allow the execution of a script by the user who uploaded it directly.

8. Regularly reviewing code and version updates

Security is never a 'one-and-done job.' Regularly reviewing your PHP code for vulnerabilities is best practice, and you should keep your version of PHP updated. Every version of PHP has had its vulnerabilities that may never have been patched or updated. Regularly reviewing your code and keeping it updated may alleviate any past and previous loopholes. You can also use automated vulnerability scanning tools to support your routine checks on PHP. Not many people put the forethought into this, but our mobile app development company in Riyadh does.

9. Secure Payment Gateway Implementation

Never store credit card credentials on your server. Secure payments should be made with a trusted third-party payment gateway that is compliant with PCI-DSS. You need to ensure proper callbacks and verify every single copper/transaction against that copper to avoid fraudulent activity.

Final Thoughts

Building a secure e-commerce site in core PHP requires significant attention to detail, mostly because PHP does not have the built-in protections of a framework.  However, if given the proper planning and attention to validation and updates, our Oracle services company in Riyadh can create a substantial, secure e-commerce shopping site for you.