Is it safe to use ajax for login?

Question

Am about to include a log in system to my web Site but i don't think it's a good idea for security to use ajax to send a and receive confirmation from an external php script called login.php and log-out the same way with another logout.php any recommendation

Solution 1

I can't think of any security implications on using Ajax to handle login and logout. It doesn't matter what you send back and forth (as long as you don't send plain text passwords from server to client) between the ajax and sever side layer, because the session will be the one which will hold the authorization state.

However, you would still have to refresh the page, or redirect to show the appropriate content to the just authorized user. So, I don't think Ajax is going to be effective at this particular situation.

Solution 2

Security

AJAX is a as safe as a plain old form + refresh page. In the end it's always an HTTP request. Why do you think that ?

However, from a usability point, make sure that people that disable javascript can still log into your app.

Be sure to use POST method to send your AJAX request, as GET requests, and their params (such as, let's say, plain-text password) might end in your web server logs, unles you are using HTTPS.

Usability

As Grégoire pointed it out:

Also from a usability point, autocomplete won't work for AJAX forms on chrome, and for AJAX-loaded forms in firefox. The browsers won't even propose to remember your password

Solution 3

Login through ajax POST should be safe as long as you have a way of preventing the XSRF attacks. It can be done by setting X-CSRFToken header in your ajax request. On the server side you should have some sort of middleware to check and verify your CSRF Token from header.

You can set the csrf token in the cookie and then query it and set it in the header:

var csrftoken = $.cookie('csrftoken');

xhr.setRequestHeader("X-CSRFToken", csrftoken);

(I have used jquery cookie library here to illusrtate )

Solution 4

GET or POST versus ajax call do have the same set of security risks. The one or the other is not implicitly riskier.

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Comments

[Clement Herreman]

In fact, you send, from the client to the server, passwords in plain text (excepted for https pages). However, you shall be punished if you send plain text password from server to client.

[Clement Herreman]

GET request might end up in the web server logs, along with plain-text passwords :/

[Qchmqs]

no i can just load the content that should be loaded with an ajax request i can simply load the container witch will change the content(at the server side )and send a different content (the appropriate content)

[Shef]

@Qchmqs: Then there is no security flow, because the authentication validation will be done on the server side. At the time you send back the response with the content you will check if the user has been authenticated.

[Qchmqs]

I don't think i had understand what u said ?

[Shef]

@Qchmqs: You said you will be loading the content with an ajax request. I said, OK, you can do it, and it will be still secure, because you will check on the server if the user is authenticated before sending the content back to the ajax request. I was simply agreeing with you.

[Qchmqs]

so i think i should go on with this idea and start coding right now ? (after a cigarette of course)

[Johan]

@clement: Sure, but that is true no matter the request is done via form or ajax.

[Clement Herreman]

Right, so then it is even more false that GET or POST have the same set of security risks.

[Davy8]

@Johan I think the problem is your wording could be interpreted in multiple ways. What you meant was that normal GET or POST have the same security implications as AJAX GET or AJAX POST. But what you wrote could be interpreted as GET or POST have the same security risks whether it is AJAX or not.

[greg0ire]

Also from a usability point, autocomplete won't work for AJAX forms on chrome, and for AJAX-loaded forms in firefox. The browsers won't even propose to remember your password.

[Clement Herreman]

@greg0ire right, I'm experiencing these days, and it's not really funny :(. Editing to add your remark.

[mat_boy]

I think that nowadays the sentence make sure that people that disable javascript can still log into your app should be amended. I cannot imagine any serious web application that works without javascript.

[RAMM-HDR]

its not recommended to use cookie to store tokens : the best way to set CSRF Tokens