The Past, Present, and Future of Cross-Site/Cross-Origin Request Forgery by Dr Philippe De Ryck

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks have been around for more than a decade. The modern developer's toolbox contains various defenses against CSRF, including the recently introduced SameSite cookies. Unfortunately, modern defenses are often misunderstood or ineffective to cover new variations of CSRF attacks. One illustration is the rise of Cross-Origin Request Forgery attacks against API-based applications.



In this session, we explore the past, present, and future of Cross-Site and Cross-Origin Request Forgery attacks. We identify the attack pattern and the impact on the application. We explore how typical defenses mitigate the attacks, but also how their shortcomings often fail to stop all attack vectors. We also identify how API-based applications become vulnerable to CSRF attacks, along with best practice defenses for APIs. You will walk away from this session with a solid understanding of CSRF attacks, the necessary prerequisites to become vulnerable to such attacks, and best practice defenses to stop CSRF once and for all.