Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) are two of the most persistent web security threats. This article outlines a full-chain protection strategy that includes input sanitization, context-aware output encoding, anti-CSRF tokens, and Content Security Policy (CSP) headers. The approach emphasizes defense in depth, ensuring that even if one layer is bypassed, others remain effective. For developers, implementing these measures is critical for preventing data breaches and maintaining user trust. The article also discusses common pitfalls, such as incomplete encoding or misconfigured CSP, and how to avoid them. This topic is evergreen because security best practices evolve slowly, and the fundamentals remain relevant across frameworks and platforms.
A comprehensive guide to protecting web applications from XSS and CSRF attacks, covering input validation, output encoding, CSRF tokens, and CSP.