Errors with failed validation and old() displaying invalid data types

[tobz-nz]

I've recently had a bot attacking a site and throwing all sorts of random data at it's forms.

The resulting error: htmlspecialchars(): Argument #1 ($string) must be of type string, array given caused by them passing an array of data to an expected string value such as name.

Has anyone had this issue before and how have you dealt with it?

My current plan is my own version of old() with a 3rd parameter for the expected data type the value should be, returning null if the value from the session does not match.

<input name="email" value="{{ refill('email', type: 'string') }}">

implemented as:

// helpers.php
function refill($key = null, $default = null, string|callable $type = null) 
{
        $callable = match($type) {
            'string' => 'is_string',
            'array' => 'is_array',
            'object' => 'is_object',
            default => $type
        };

        $value = app('request')->old($key, $default);

        if ($callable && call_user_func($callable, $value) === false) {
            return;
        }

        return $value;
}

Is there a better way of doing this in the framework?
Should there be?