CSRF Protection vs SameSite Cookies
Developers should implement CSRF protection whenever building web applications that handle user authentication and sensitive actions, such as banking sites, e-commerce platforms, or social media apps, to prevent attackers from exploiting logged-in sessions meets developers should learn and use samesite cookies to improve the security of web applications by preventing unauthorized cross-site requests, which is crucial for protecting user sessions and sensitive data. Here's our take.
CSRF Protection
Developers should implement CSRF protection whenever building web applications that handle user authentication and sensitive actions, such as banking sites, e-commerce platforms, or social media apps, to prevent attackers from exploiting logged-in sessions
CSRF Protection
Nice PickDevelopers should implement CSRF protection whenever building web applications that handle user authentication and sensitive actions, such as banking sites, e-commerce platforms, or social media apps, to prevent attackers from exploiting logged-in sessions
Pros
- +It is particularly critical for applications using cookie-based authentication, as browsers automatically include cookies in requests, making them vulnerable to CSRF attacks without proper safeguards
- +Related to: web-security, authentication
Cons
- -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case
SameSite Cookies
Developers should learn and use SameSite cookies to improve the security of web applications by preventing unauthorized cross-site requests, which is crucial for protecting user sessions and sensitive data
Pros
- +It is particularly important for authentication cookies, where setting SameSite to Strict or Lax can block CSRF attacks, while None (with Secure flag) is used for cross-site scenarios like embedded iframes or third-party integrations
- +Related to: http-cookies, web-security
Cons
- -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case
The Verdict
Use CSRF Protection if: You want it is particularly critical for applications using cookie-based authentication, as browsers automatically include cookies in requests, making them vulnerable to csrf attacks without proper safeguards and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.
Use SameSite Cookies if: You prioritize it is particularly important for authentication cookies, where setting samesite to strict or lax can block csrf attacks, while none (with secure flag) is used for cross-site scenarios like embedded iframes or third-party integrations over what CSRF Protection offers.
Developers should implement CSRF protection whenever building web applications that handle user authentication and sensitive actions, such as banking sites, e-commerce platforms, or social media apps, to prevent attackers from exploiting logged-in sessions
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