README.md

CSRF Examples

Example Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in action.

Requirements

• git
• Golang

Install Go Modules

Like any golang project, you will need to download and install the required modules for the project to run. Change into the "csrf" directory:

cd csrf

And then:

go mod vendor && go mod download && go mod tidy

This command installs the golang dependencies needed to run the project in a new directory named vendor.

Once the modules have finished installing, you can run the project like this:

go run main.go

OR

go run main.go withoutCsrf

You should see the following if everything is OK:

Server started and listening at localhost:3000

Try the demo

Start the server without csrf, to see the dangers of these attacks

go run main.go withoutCsrf

Open your browser to and navigate to localhost:3000.

Login using the test account:

• Username: bob
• Password: test

In a new tab, navigate to localhost:3001 to view some examples of CSRF exploits. You will notice that the balance goes down everytime you load that page. This is because the page is successfully exploiting a CSRF vulnerability.

See the "fixed" version

To see the csrf version of this demo, just stop the server by pressing CTRL + C to kill the server process and then run

go run main.go

Navigate again to localhost:3000 and login to the test account.

And once more try the page with the CSRF exploits: localhost:3001.

You will notice now that the account balance is unchanged.

Going further

Here are some useful links where you can learn more about this topic:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_request_forgery
• https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Cross-Site_Request_Forgery_(CSRF)