Learn how to fix CSRF Token Mismatch in Laravel and Postman. Our Laravel Support team is here to help you with your questions and concerns.

How to Fix CSRF Token Mismatch in Laravel and Postman

When working with Laravel APIs protected by CSRF middleware, we may run into a “CSRF token mismatch” error in Postman.

This error lets us know that the CSRF tokens on the client-side (Postman) and the server-side (Laravel) are not aligned. We can easily fix this issue with a little help from opur Experts.

In fact there are two primary ways to resolve the CSRF token mismatch in Postman.

Disable CSRF for Testing

First, temporarily disable the VerifyCsrfToken middleware for specific routes during testing. This is done by opening `app/Http/Middleware/VerifyCsrfToken.php` and adding the route to the `$except` array within the middleware definition.

Our Experts would likr to point put that disabling CSRF protection in a production environment exposes our application to potential CSRF attacks.

So, use approach only for development or testing purposes. Also, remember to re-enable CSRF protection before deploying to production.

Include the CSRF Token in Postman Requests

1. First, make a GET request to the `/sanctum/csrf-cookie` endpoint. So, if we are using Laravel Sanctum for SPA authentication, this endpoint will provide a cookie containing the CSRF token.
2. Then, extract the CSRF token value from the response cookie headers. This is done by going to Postman’s “Cookies” tab or browser developer tools to view the cookies.
3. Now, it is time to include the Token in Postman Requests. So, add a new header named `X-XSRF-TOKEN` (or `XSRF-TOKEN`, based on the Laravel configuration) to the POST request in Postman.
4. Also, set the header value to the CSRF token we got from the `/sanctum/csrf-cookie` endpoint response.

Additional Tips

• If we are using a JavaScript framework like Axios, it will automatically handle CSRF by including the CSRF token from cookies in the `X-XSRF-TOKEN` header. Depending on the setup, we may not need to include it in Postman requests.
• Laravel API routes usually don’t enforce CSRF protection as they are intended for API consumption, not form submissions. So, if we are building a fully-fledged SPA using Laravel Sanctum, CSRF protection is usually managed on the SPA side.

By including the CSRF token in Postman requests, we can ensure that our API interactions remain secure and aligned with Laravel’s CSRF protection mechanism.

Disabling CSRF protection should be done only in development and testing scenarios with the correct safeguards re-enabled before moving to production.

[Need assistance with a different issue? Our team is available 24/7.]

Conclusion

In brief, our Support Experts demonstrated how to fix CSRF Token Mismatch in Laravel and Postman.