What is Cross-Site Request Forgery in Cybersecurity?
Offensive SecurityCSRF
Version 1.0 · Published April 2026 · Last verified April 2026
How is it pronounced?
see-surf
'See-surf' as one word, or 'C-S-R-F' letter by letter. Also called 'XSRF'.
An attack that forces an authenticated user's browser to send unwanted requests to a web application where they are logged in. The attacker crafts a malicious page that triggers actions (transferring funds, changing email addresses) using the victim's valid session. CSRF exploits the trust a site has in the user's browser.
Why Cross-Site Request Forgery Matters for Your Cybersecurity Career
CSRF is a standard finding in cybersecurity web application assessments. Penetration testers check for missing CSRF tokens on every state-changing form. Security engineers implement anti-CSRF tokens, SameSite cookies, and origin header validation. Understanding CSRF is required for CompTIA PenTest+, CEH, and OSCP certifications.
Which Cybersecurity Roles Use Cross-Site Request Forgery?
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Looking for the acronym? Read about CSRF in the cybersecurity acronym decoder
An attack that forces an authenticated user's browser to send unwanted requests to a web application where they are logged in. The attacker crafts a malicious page that triggers actions (transferring funds, changing email addresses) using the victim's valid session. CSRF exploits the trust a site has in the user's browser.
CSRF is a standard finding in cybersecurity web application assessments. Penetration testers check for missing CSRF tokens on every state-changing form. Security engineers implement anti-CSRF tokens, SameSite cookies, and origin header validation. Understanding CSRF is required for CompTIA PenTest+, CEH, and OSCP certifications.
Cybersecurity professionals who work with Cross-Site Request Forgery include Penetration Tester, Security Engineer, Security Architect. These roles apply Cross-Site Request Forgery knowledge within the Offensive Security domain.
Sources
Definitions are original explanations written for career development purposes. For authoritative technical definitions, refer to NIST, ISO, or the relevant standards body.
Last verified: April 2026?Report an inaccuracy
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