vb.org Archive - Implementing CSRF Protection in modifications

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Implementing CSRF Protection in modifications

With the new version released today for vBulletin 3.6.10 and 3.7.0 RC4, a new protection against Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) has been introduced. This new protection might influence the coding in modifications.

Scott MacVicar took the time to compile a short explanation on this new protection for the coders on vBulletin.org:

Changes for CSRF protection with third party modifications

Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) involves taking advantage of the stateless nature of HTTP, there are no ways to ensure the exact origin of a request, its also not possible to detect what was actually initiated by a user and what was forced by a third party script. A token was added to the latest version of each of the vBulletin products, with the release of 3.6.10 and 3.7.0 RC4 it is no longer possible to submit a POST request directly without passing in the known token.

The addition of a security token for each POST request removes the ability for a remote page to force a user to submit an action. At the moment this protection will only apply to vBulletin files and third party files will need to opt into this protection and add the appropriate hidden field. This was done to preserve backwards compatibility.

Adding Protection to your own files

To opt your entire file into CSRF protection the following should be added to the top of the file under the define for THIS_SCRIPT.

PHP Code:


		
			
define('CSRF_PROTECTION', true);

With this change all POST requests to this file will check for the presence of the securitytoken field and compare it to the value for the user, if its wrong an error message will be shown and execution with halt.

If this value is set to false then all CSRF protection is removed for the file, this is appropriate for something that intentionally accepts remote POST requests.

You should always add this to your file, even if you don't think the script is ever going to receive POST requests.

An absence of this defined constant within your files will result in the old style referrer checking being performed.

Template Changes

The following should be added to all of the forms which POST back to vBulletin or a vBulletin script. This will automatically be filled out with a 40 character hash that is unique to the user.

Code:

<input type="hidden" name="securitytoken" value="$bbuserinfo[securitytoken]" />

Again it is worthwhile adding this to your templates even if it is currently not using the CSRF protection.

Exempting Certain Actions

It may be appropriate to exempt a particular action from the CSRF protection, in this case you can add the following to the file.

PHP Code:


		
			
define('CSRF_SKIP_LIST', 'action_one,action_two');

The above example would exempt both example.php?do=action_one and example.php?do=action_two from the CSRF protection, if the CSRF_SKIP_LIST constant is defined with no value then it will exempt the default action.

If the skip list needs to be changed at runtime is it available within the registry object, using the init_startup hook the following code would be used to exempt 'example.php?do=action_three'.

PHP Code:


		
			
if (THIS_SCRIPT == 'example')
{
        $vbulletin->csrf_skip_list[] = 'action_three';
}

Also, you need to add the security token to AJAX requests using POST. This can be simply added using the variable "SECURITYTOKEN". An example is below.

Code:

YAHOO.util.Connect.asyncRequest('POST', scriptpath + '?do=ajax', {

        success: this.handle_ajax_response,

        failure: this.handle_ajax_error,

        timeout: vB_Default_Timeout,

        scope: this

}, SESSIONURL + 'securitytoken=' + SECURITYTOKEN + '&foo=' + foo);

If you wanna search all template that you need to edit to add "<input type="hidden" name="securitytoken" value="$bbuserinfo[securitytoken]" />" you can use that query in your MySQL database:

Quote:

SELECT templateid , title , styleid FROM template WHERE template_un NOT LIKE '%<input type="hidden" name="s" value="$session[sessionhash]" />%<input type="hidden" name="securitytoken" value="$bbuserinfo[securitytoken]" />%' AND template_un LIKE '%<input type="hidden" name="s" value="$session[sessionhash]" />%' ORDER BY title ASC, styleid ASC;

I used it to fix all mod that i've installed in my vBulletin board

--------------- Added [DATE]1209056453[/DATE] at [TIME]1209056453[/TIME] ---------------

calendarjump, FAQ, forumjump, WHOSONLINE don't need to be edited if you haven't modded it

wow now THIS is a headache. i have security token errors all over my forum....

--------------- Added 24 Apr 2008 at 11:31 ---------------

so WHAT does this mean? that we have to redo ALL of our mods and templates with this CSRF or whatever code???

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoTTi (Post 1498357)

so WHAT does this mean? that we have to redo ALL of our mods and templates with this CSRF or whatever code???

It means you need to add the one line of HTML above to your templates and submission forms that are causing the errors.

wow now this is retarded....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wayne Luke (Post 1498407)

It means you need to add the one line of HTML above to your templates and submission forms that are causing the errors.

Can someone give an example on how to do that? I am not a coder and get lost with this easily...now for the trained eye it's no doubt a piece of cake. For instance I was using the Cyb PayPal Donate Mod and upgrading to 3.6.10 broke it with that security token update. I posted in that thread yesterday but I don't think the creator has been around.

<font face="Tahoma">OK...... wanna explain this for the SLOW?
which templates SPECIFICLY do we need to add WHAT SPECIFIC code? to make 3rd party mods (vb.com) to WORK correctly on our sites?

I think a few 100 people are STUCK on what to do even tho it was explained from "coders", leaving "non-coders" and only editors of codes or mods such as myself BAFFLED as to what Exactly and how Exactly to do the such above instructions...</font>

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aclikyano (Post 1498676)

OK...... wanna explain this for the SLOW?
which templates SPECIFICLY do we need to add WHAT SPECIFIC code? to make 3rd party mods (vb.com) to WORK correctly on our sites?

I think a few 100 people are STUCK on what to do even tho it was explained from "coders", leaving "non-coders" and only editors of codes or mods such as myself BAFFLED as to what Exactly and how Exactly to do the such above instructions...

You must add this to any form on your site. I haven't tried the query above, but it should work and you can add them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedFoxy (Post 1498253)

If you wanna search all template that you need to edit to add "<input type="hidden" name="securitytoken" value="$bbuserinfo[securitytoken]" />" you can use that query in your MySQL database:

I used it to fix all mod that i've installed in my vBulletin board

--------------- Added Thursday, 24 April 2008, 19 at 19:00 ---------------

calendarjump, FAQ, forumjump, WHOSONLINE don't need to be edited if you haven't modded it

Does this MySQL query mean that it will insert the

Code:

<input type="hidden" name="securitytoken" value="$bbuserinfo[securitytoken]" />

after each instances of the following code

Code:

<input type="hidden" name="s" value="$session[sessionhash]" />

This will affect only templates that need the security token embedded right?

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