Laravel CSRF Protection Guide: Examples and How to Enable

Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) is a malicious exploit that leverages the trust websites place in authenticated users, allowing third-party sites to mimic legitimate user actions. The article explains how CSRF vulnerabilities work, particularly in the context of Laravel web applications, and demonstrates how attackers can exploit these weaknesses by sending unauthorized requests. It provides a practical example of setting up a Laravel project, creating a feature that can be exploited, and then exploiting it by disabling CSRF protection. To safeguard applications, Laravel offers built-in CSRF protection which can be enabled through middleware, ensuring requests are legitimate by using tokens embedded in forms. The article emphasizes the importance of maintaining security practices to protect against such attacks and suggests reviewing Laravel's official documentation for deeper understanding.