CSRF: Cross-Site Request Forgery in Cybersecurity
'See-surf' as one word, or 'C-S-R-F' letter by letter. Also called 'XSRF'.
CSRF stands for Cross-Site Request Forgery. Cross-Site Request Forgery tricks an authenticated user's browser into sending unwanted requests to a web application. The attack works because the browser automatically includes cookies and session tokens with every request to the target site.
How CSRF Is Used in Cybersecurity
Penetration testers check whether state-changing requests lack anti-CSRF tokens or SameSite cookie attributes. Security engineers implement CSRF protections using synchronizer tokens, double-submit cookies, or SameSite cookie flags. Security architects design authentication flows that resist CSRF by default.
Read the full glossary entry: Cross-Site Request Forgery in Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity Roles That Work with CSRF
Related Cybersecurity Acronyms
Frequently asked questions
What does CSRF stand for?
CSRF stands for Cross-Site Request Forgery. Cross-Site Request Forgery tricks an authenticated user's browser into sending unwanted requests to a web application. The attack works because the browser automatically includes cookies and session tokens with every request to the target site.
What is CSRF used for in cybersecurity?
Penetration testers check whether state-changing requests lack anti-CSRF tokens or SameSite cookie attributes. Security engineers implement CSRF protections using synchronizer tokens, double-submit cookies, or SameSite cookie flags. Security architects design authentication flows that resist CSRF by default.
Sources
Definitions are original explanations written for career development purposes. For authoritative technical definitions, refer to NIST, ISO, or the relevant standards body.