Prevent Cross-Site Request Forgery Attacks (CSRF)

• Jun 03, 2025
• 2 minutes to read

In Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks, a threat actor tricks an authenticated user into executing unauthorized commands.

Use anti-forgery tokens to protect your application from CSRF attacks. These tokens work as follows:

1. Once the client requests an HTML page with a form, the server generates two random tokens.
2. The server adds these tokens in the response. It sends one token as an HttpOnly cookie and places another token in a hidden form field.
3. Each time a user submits the form, the client sends tokens back to the server.
4. If the server receives a request that does not include both tokens or if one of tokens was modified, the server rejects the request.

To use anti-forgery tokens in your application:

1. Make sure that the application references the System.Web.WebPages.dll assembly.

2. Create a master page that generates an AntiForgery token:

   <form id="form1" runat="server">
       <%= System.Web.Helpers.AntiForgery.GetHtml() %>
   </form>
   

3. During master page initialization, add a handler for the Page.PreLoad event:

   CS

   protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e) {
       base.OnInit(e);
       Page.PreLoad += Page_PreLoad;
   }
   

   VB

   Protected Overrides Sub OnInit(e As EventArgs)
       MyBase.OnInit(e)
       AddHandler Page.PreLoad, AddressOf Page_PreLoad
   End Sub
   

4. In the event handler, call the Validate method to check whether the token is valid:

   CS

   protected void Page_PreLoad(object sender, System.EventArgs e) {
       if (IsPostBack)
           System.Web.Helpers.AntiForgery.Validate();
   }
   

   VB

   Protected Sub Page_PreLoad(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
       If IsPostBack Then
           System.Web.Helpers.AntiForgery.Validate()
       End If
   End Sub