How to Fix CSRF Protection in Laravel

What is CSRF Protection?

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) is an attack that forces authenticated users to execute unwanted actions. Laravel provides built-in CSRF protection through tokens that verify each request originates from your application.

Security Impact

Severity: High

• Unauthorized actions performed as legitimate users
• Account takeover
• Data modification or deletion
• Privilege escalation
• Financial fraud

How to Fix

1. Ensure CSRF Middleware is Active

// app/Http/Kernel.php
protected $middlewareGroups = [
    'web' => [
        // ... other middleware
        \App\Http\Middleware\VerifyCsrfToken::class,
    ],
];

2. Add CSRF Token to Forms

{{-- Blade template --}}
<form method="POST" action="/profile">
    @csrf
    <input type="text" name="name">
    <button type="submit">Update</button>
</form>

3. Configure AJAX Requests

// resources/js/app.js
// Add CSRF token to all AJAX requests
document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
    const token = document.querySelector('meta[name="csrf-token"]').content;
    
    // Using Fetch API
    fetch('/api/endpoint', {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: {
            'X-CSRF-TOKEN': token,
            'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        },
        body: JSON.stringify(data)
    });
    
    // Using Axios (auto-configured)
    axios.post('/api/endpoint', data);
});

{{-- Add meta tag in layout --}}
<meta name="csrf-token" content="{{ csrf_token() }}">

4. Configure Axios (Automatic)

// resources/js/bootstrap.js
window.axios = require('axios');
window.axios.defaults.headers.common['X-Requested-With'] = 'XMLHttpRequest';

// CSRF token automatically added
let token = document.head.querySelector('meta[name="csrf-token"]');
if (token) {
    window.axios.defaults.headers.common['X-CSRF-TOKEN'] = token.content;
}

5. Exclude Routes from CSRF (Use Carefully)

// app/Http/Middleware/VerifyCsrfToken.php
protected $except = [
    'stripe/*', // Webhook routes
    'api/*',    // API routes (use Sanctum instead)
];

Verification Steps

1. Submit a form without @csrf - should get 419 error
2. Submit with @csrf - should succeed
3. Try replaying an old request - should fail
4. Test AJAX requests include CSRF token
5. Verify API routes use proper authentication

Best Practices

1. Use Sanctum for APIs

// routes/api.php
Route::middleware('auth:sanctum')->group(function () {
    Route::post('/user/update', [UserController::class, 'update']);
});

2. Handle CSRF Exceptions Gracefully

// app/Exceptions/Handler.php
use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Exception\HttpException;

public function render($request, Throwable $e)
{
    if ($e instanceof \Illuminate\Session\TokenMismatchException) {
        return redirect()
            ->back()
            ->withInput($request->except('password'))
            ->withErrors(['csrf' => 'Your session has expired. Please try again.']);
    }
    
    return parent::render($request, $e);
}

3. SPA Configuration

// routes/web.php
Route::get('/sanctum/csrf-cookie', function (Request $request) {
    return response()->noContent();
});

// Before making authenticated requests
await axios.get('/sanctum/csrf-cookie');
await axios.post('/api/endpoint', data);

Related Issues

• Session Configuration
• Brute Force Protection
• API Rate Limiting