Book Image

The PHP Workshop

By : Jordi Martinez, Alexandru Busuioc, David Carr, Markus Gray, Vijay Joshi, Mark McCollum, Bart McLeod, M A Hossain Tonu
Book Image

The PHP Workshop

By: Jordi Martinez, Alexandru Busuioc, David Carr, Markus Gray, Vijay Joshi, Mark McCollum, Bart McLeod, M A Hossain Tonu

Overview of this book

Do you want to build your own websites, but have never really been confident enough to turn your ideas into real projects? If your web development skills are a bit rusty, or if you've simply never programmed before, The PHP Workshop will show you how to build dynamic websites using PHP with the help of engaging examples and challenging activities. This PHP tutorial starts with an introduction to PHP, getting you set up with a productive development environment. You will write, execute, and troubleshoot your first PHP script using a built-in templating engine and server. Next, you'll learn about variables and data types, and see how conditions and loops help control the flow of a PHP program. Progressing through the chapters, you'll use HTTP methods to turn your PHP scripts into web apps, persist data by connecting to an external database, handle application errors, and improve functionality by using third-party packages. By the end of this Workshop, you'll be well-versed in web application development, and have the knowledge and skills to creatively tackle your own ambitious projects with PHP.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) is an attack that enables the user to execute unwanted actions on a web application in which they're currently authenticated. This attack could succeed in the transfer of funds, changing an account email address, or making a purchase in the name of the user.

This can happen when the attacker knows exactly what data is expected on the affected application for a certain action – changing an email address, let's say. So, the attacker crafts the HTML form on their server, filling it with their preferred data (that is, their own email address). Next, the attacker chooses the victim and uses social engineering to trick them into accessing the URL.

The victim will then land on a malicious website and the browser will be instructed to submit the (invisible) form to the affected application, where the user is logged in. The email will be changed and when the victim realizes this, it may already be too...