function validate_file( $file, $allowed_files = array() ) {
	// `../` on its own is not allowed:
	if ( '../' === $file ) {
		return 1;
	}

	// More than one occurence of `../` is not allowed:
	if ( preg_match_all( '#\.\./#', $file, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER ) && ( count( $matches ) > 1 ) ) {
		return 1;
	}

	// `../` which does not occur at the end of the path is not allowed:
	if ( false !== strpos( $file, '../' ) && '../' !== mb_substr( $file, -3, 3 ) ) {
		return 1;
	}

	// Files not in the allowed file list are not allowed:
	if ( ! empty( $allowed_files ) && ! in_array( $file, $allowed_files ) ) {
		return 3;
	}

	// Absolute Windows drive paths are not allowed:
	if ( ':' == substr( $file, 1, 1 ) ) {
		return 2;
	}

	return 0;
}