Kotlin CSRF Protection Guide: Examples and How to Enable It

Security in web applications is crucial, particularly against threats like cross-site request forgery (CSRF), which can compromise user data. CSRF exploits occur when unauthorized commands are transmitted from a user that the web application trusts, and preventing such attacks involves ensuring that data requests originate from the same origin as the hosting site. This article, focusing on Kotlin and Spring Security, explains how to implement CSRF protection by using random tokens generated by the backend and incorporated into HTTP requests, ensuring only legitimate requests are processed. The mechanism relies on the CsrfTokenRepository to manage these tokens, traditionally stored in the HTTP session, although customizable to fit different security needs. Despite CSRF being an older threat, it remains relevant, underscoring the importance of layered security approaches and good practices, such as separating browsing profiles and being cautious about software installations. The article, authored by software engineer Rhuan Souza, emphasizes the need for integrating security with operational requirements in application development.