# Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
Confidence: high
Last verified: 2026-05-22
Generation: human_only


## TL;DR

CSRF forces authenticated users to execute unwanted actions on a web application. The attacker tricks the victim's browser into sending a request that the application treats as legitimate because it carries the user's session cookie. Prevention: anti-CSRF tokens, SameSite cookies, custom headers.

## Core Explanation

SameSite cookie attribute (2020+): `Strict` (never sent cross-site), `Lax` (default since Chrome 80, sent on top-level navigation GET), `None` (always sent, requires Secure). Modern frameworks (Laravel, Django, Rails) include CSRF protection by default. Double-submit cookie pattern: send token in both cookie and request header.

## Further Reading

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