csrf token in js laravel

Introduction

CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) is a type of security attack where an attacker tricks the user into performing an action without their knowledge or consent. Laravel, a PHP web framework, provides built-in protection against CSRF attacks using CSRF tokens.

CSRF Token in Laravel

In Laravel, CSRF tokens are generated for each active user session. These tokens are used to verify that the authenticated user is the one actually making the request. Without this protection, an attacker could create a disguised form on another website that submits fraudulent data to your application.

Laravel makes it easy to include the CSRF token in your forms by providing the @csrf Blade directive. This directive generates a hidden input field containing the CSRF token:

@csrf

When the form is submitted, Laravel will automatically verify that the token matches the expected value for the user session. If the token doesn't match, Laravel will throw a \Illuminate\Session\TokenMismatchException and redirect the user back to the previous page.

CSRF Token in JavaScript

If you are making AJAX requests in your Laravel application, you may need to manually include the CSRF token in your JavaScript code. You can do this by adding a meta tag to the head section of your HTML:

<meta name="csrf-token" content="{{ csrf_token() }}">

This will add a csrf-token meta tag to your HTML with the value of the current CSRF token.

In your JavaScript code, you can retrieve the CSRF token value from this meta tag and include it in your AJAX requests using the X-CSRF-TOKEN header:

var token = document.head.querySelector('meta[name="csrf-token"]').content;

axios.defaults.headers.common['X-CSRF-TOKEN'] = token;

If you are using jQuery, you can set the CSRF token as a header for all AJAX requests using the beforeSend callback:

$.ajaxSetup({
    headers: {
        'X-CSRF-TOKEN': $('meta[name="csrf-token"]').attr('content')
    }
});

Conclusion

CSRF attacks can be dangerous and difficult to detect. Fortunately, Laravel provides built-in protection against CSRF attacks using CSRF tokens. By including the @csrf Blade directive in your forms and manually including the CSRF token in your JavaScript code, you can ensure that your Laravel application is secure against CSRF attacks.