# pillarjs/understanding-csrf

What are CSRF tokens and how do they work?

Repository: https://github.com/pillarjs/understanding-csrf
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/understanding-csrf
License Family: other
Last push: 2021-04-17T08:06:55+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4232, "days_push": 1964, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1423, forks 115 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:41.225767+00:00)

## What it is
An educational guide by the Express/Pillar.js team explaining what CSRF attacks are and how CSRF tokens work, along with mitigation strategies. It is documentation, not a software library.

## Use cases
- understand how csrf tokens work
- learn what a csrf attack is
- mitigate cross-site request forgery in express apps
- explain why method-override is dangerous
- decide whether to use csurf middleware
- web security best practices for json apis

## When to choose
- you want a concise explanation of CSRF concepts and mitigations
- you maintain an Express app and need CSRF guidance
- you're evaluating CSRF token implementations

## When to avoid
- you need a working CSRF token library (use pillarjs/csrf instead)
- you need runnable code or tests
- you need coverage beyond CSRF web security

## Facets
- artifact type: learning-resource
- maturity: maintenance
- function: security, documentation
- domain: security, web-development, tutorials
- platform: -
- tags: csrf, web-security, express, guide, web-server, nodejs

## Member repositories
- pillarjs/understanding-csrf (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:41.225767+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:37:39.561550+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/pillarjs/understanding-csrf (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:41.225767+00:00, sha 1bc89bdda15e)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.