Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) is a web security vulnerability that allows an attacker to induce users to perform actions that they do not intend to perform
. The attack tricks the victim into submitting a malicious request, inheriting their identity and privileges to perform undesired actions
. CSRF attacks can lead to various consequences, such as changing the victim's email address, password, or making a funds transfer
. Some key aspects of CSRF attacks include:
- Social Engineering : Attackers often use social engineering techniques, such as sending a link via email or chat, to trick users into executing actions on their behalf
- State-Changing Requests : CSRF attacks target state-changing requests, such as changing the victim's email address or password
- Anti-CSRF Measures : To prevent CSRF attacks, web applications can implement various defenses, such as CSRF tokens, which are unique, secret, and unpredictable values generated by the server-side application and shared with the client
To protect against CSRF attacks, it is essential to:
- Review code for CSRF vulnerabilities and ensure proper implementation of anti-CSRF measures
- Be cautious when clicking on links in emails or chats, as they may lead to malicious requests
- Implement strong authentication and authorization mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access and actions
