This article is to help readers understand the differences/similarities between XSS and CSRF attacks. These are attacks that are common in the application security realm. This information may be useful for a job interview one day. I hope you enjoy!
The main difference between Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) is in the method in which the attack attempts to exploit the user’s trust with the website or vice-versa.
In a XSS attack, an attacker will make the user involuntarily execute client-side code (e.g. Javascript). Below is an example of a XSS attack attempt:
https://espn.com/search?q=">alert(document.cookie)
In a CSRF attack, an attacker will attempt to fool the user into making a request of the attackers choosing. This can involve sending the user a link that makes them involuntarily change their password. An example of this link is as follows:
https://espn.com/account?new_password=abc123
What these attacks have in common is that that can be considered client-side vulnerabilities and require some type of user involvement such as clicking a link or visiting a website. More specifically, these attacks are aimed towards a user rather than a server. It is worth noting that XSS can be considered more powerful than CSRF. This is because CSRF is involves a particular action (e.g changing a password), while XSS allows the execution of arbitrary script code. XSS vulnerabilities can be mitigated if proper precautions are made when handling user-controlled data while CSRF vulnerabilities can be mitigated by making fundamental changes to the architecture of a website.