Why It is Important to Secure Websites from Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
The world of the internet is getting wider and wider each day, and there is nothing to stop that. From booking an air ticket, to buying a packet of biscuits, everything is done online today, and surely it had some bad impact for the local businesses in many countries. Reasons, people stopped hopping into the shops and stores, and switched to ordering using the online portals. This made human beings lazy.
No matter how easy life has become because of these facilities that companies have provided us, the huge risk comes into the picture when it comes to how secure these processes and businesses are. And how safe are the customers?
The era of trends is going on where people openly share their private information but do not understand that it is a huge risk as well because you don’t know when and how anyone can use it against you. So, as it is about security, today, we will introduce you with CSRF – Cross Site Request Forgery whose sole purpose is to make websites secure from attacks. Let’s see in detail.
What is the meaning of Cross Site Request Forgery?
The other name of CSRF is XSFR, one-click attacks or riding of sessions, where the meaning of all terms are the same. The responsibility of CSRF is to play the role of a web security vulnerability that commands different types of browsers to perform an action that is not required on a website that is already trusted such as a big e-commerce platform.
Suppose, you received an email with a link and you unintentionally clicked on the link, that’s where you are tricked. The browser sent you a malicious email, you thought it was authenticated, and you simply responded, and created a vulnerable point for the business. However, this action was given to the browser by an attacker.
When the CSRF attack happens, there are two parties mainly involved in it. The “attacker” and the “victim”. The attacker’s role is to identify the victim’s personal information, and then use it to perform illegal actions using the email ids. The illegal performances include, transactions of huge amounts, modifications of emails and passwords, or fraud calls by generating OTPs. While all this happens, the victim does not even have any idea about it.
What actions are included in the Cross Site Request Forgery Process?
If an attacker is successful in getting a victim, the attacker can do the following things:
● Perform an illegal action on any website that is vulnerable and get benefits such as sensitive information
● Get all the session information based on the website’s cookies
● Get all the requested parameters information that are not secure
● Breach of the entire organization’s official website along with all data leakage
● Assumption of identities of multiple victims
● Modifications of data and sensitive information
● Breaching the security system
So, that is why it is very essential to protect your data inside an organization by applying tight cyber security rules. If these rules are not implemented then it is assured that all the data is at a huge risk.
Let us move ahead and see that when a CSRF attack happens, what impact does it leave on the organization and what do they have to deal with later to re-secure everything.
The bad impact of CSRF attacks
CSRF attacks simply ruin a trustful relationship between the attacker and the victim. The victim provides data by trusting the websites, thinking that it is all protected but later gets betrayed if the data is leaked.
Right after a CSRF attack happens, the attacker gets full access to the account, whether it is a user account or an admin’s account. The attacker can do whatever he wants to. The side-effect of CSRF is so dangerous that the entire business or the website can get compromised very easily, and the attacker does not have to put in a lot of effort to do so. He only needs to plan a CSRF properly.
Once the CSRF attack is successful on any business the attacker can do the following things:
● Transfer of finance from one bank to another
● Collect all the data of the customers and compromisation of business and customer
● Misusing the data against the business to fulfill the purpose
● Damage the reputation of the business in market
● Damage the trustful relationship between a client and the business
● Modifications of passwords
The working methods of Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
Now, as you already know well-detailed information on what a CSRF attack is, it is essential for you to know how a CSRF attack works in real-time, and what are the precautions that you must take if you are new into the business world.
Suppose, you are a user, and you are on a website in a browser where you are trying to login into that particular website. Now, to login successfully, you have created your account in which you provided an email address and a password to complete the process successfully – right? Now, the credentials that you used were saved in the session cookie along with other details such as the IP address and the domain credentials of the Windows system.
Once you complete this authentication process, and a CSRF attack takes place at that moment, it will become a chance for the attacker to show himself as you and use the website. At that time, the website won’t be able to identify between an attacker and the original user.
The main motto of CSRF attacks is to modify the state of the server, and to pull the sensitive data of the users and provide the attacker the authority to gain profit from it.
About CSRF Tokens: What are they?
Every token is in encrypted form. Which means they are confidential and only authenticated users can see it. And every CSRF token is also a secret value. This value is generated from the server’s end and then once it is generated, it is sent to the client. The CSRF token, once generated successfully, and implanted into the client’s server, can see all the requests made from the user’s end.
Here is the catch. The purpose of using CSRF tokens is to prevent the website from CSRF attacks. Because, once the CSRF token is applied, it becomes a challenge for the attacker. Due to the CSRF token, the attacker can’t predict what is the value applied on the CSRF token that is used for the user.
Be mindful with these CSRF vulnerabilities:
1. No connection between the CSRF token and the user’s session:
There are many applications that maintain multiple tokens at one time if the token is accepted. But those applications do not take any responsibility of associating any CSRF token with any specific user. If the attacker wants to breach it, then there is only a requirement of a single token.
2. If the CSRF token is present, only then the validation happens:
If the CSRF token is not present, then the verification process won’t happen successfully. In this case, the attacker needs to have a CSRF token in which there is code information available.
3. Cookie copies the CSRF token:
If the CSRF token is already in use, only in that case the application will keep the record of the token otherwise they won’t. This might help the attacker to create a cookie manually with the CSRF token in it by using the existing format of the application very easily.
Conclusion:
Mentioned above is all the necessary information about the CSRF tokens – Cross Site Request Forgery. Apart from CSRF there are many other methods as well that attackers may use to breach the security norms of the website.
Stay tuned with us if you want to know more about how you can protect your data and save it from the attackers. Till then, have fun and chill!
