CSRF stands for “Cross Site Request Forgery” and is a term that is used to describe a situation in which an attacker tricks a computer user into submitting a web request that they are unaware of performing, that is performed under their identity, and which is typically against their interests. An example might be an instruction to their online bank to transfer money out of their account and into the attacker’s account. Since the action is performed from the victim’s computer, it is indistinguishable from a legitimate and intentional request made by the victim. This obviously sounds fairly alarming! Let’s dig deeper into the mechanisms that make this possible.
