CSRF in React: Handling Form Submissions

Introduction

React, renowned for its capability to streamline user interface development, must also be navigated with an awareness of its security implications. While React is inherently secure, specific practices, if not properly managed, can introduce vulnerabilities to CSRF attacks. This lesson is dedicated to uncovering these potential security gaps through hands-on examples, emphasizing that features designed to enhance functionality can inadvertently open avenues for security breaches.

In this lesson, we’ll learn about a ubiquitous feature within web applications: handling form submissions. This scenario, while seemingly straightforward, serves as an ideal case study for understanding how CSRF vulnerabilities can emerge in our React applications. We’ll delve into the process of creating a form for submitting user data—such as a feedback form—and demonstrate how an attacker could exploit CSRF vulnerabilities to submit unauthorized data on behalf of the user without their consent.

By the conclusion of this lesson, you’ll have acquired a more nuanced comprehension of managing form submissions in React. You’ll learn to pinpoint potential CSRF vulnerabilities and implement robust countermeasures, ensuring your applications remain functional and secure. This knowledge is vital, as securing our applications is an ongoing journey that demands constant vigilance, informed awareness, and a preemptive stance toward cybersecurity.

Let’s explore React, aiming to decode the challenges of protecting our applications from CSRF attacks.

Feedback submission application

Imagine we’re crafting a feedback submission feature for a company website. This feature allows users to submit feedback through a form detailing their experiences or suggestions for improvement. The company then collects and reviews the feedback to enhance its services or products. Additionally, there’s a public page where submitted feedback can be viewed by other visitors to encourage transparency and community engagement.

Our application will fundamentally consist of two components:

• A public listing of all feedback submissions that have been shared.

• A form where users can submit their feedback and see it appear in the public listing upon submission.

For simplicity, we’ll simulate the feedback submissions within our app without integrating an external backend service like a database. Typically, a backend service would be employed to POST the new feedback and GET all feedback for display. To streamline our focus, we’ll construct the entire application within the App.js file, making it straightforward to understand and follow.

Code example

Here is a simplified version of the Feedback Form component in our React application: