include antiforgerytoken in ajax post ASP.NET MVC

Question

You have incorrectly specified the contentType to application/json.

Here's an example of how this might work.

Controller:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }

    [HttpPost]
    [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
    public ActionResult Index(string someValue)
    {
        return Json(new { someValue = someValue });
    }
}

View:

@using (Html.BeginForm(null, null, FormMethod.Post, new { id = "__AjaxAntiForgeryForm" }))
{
    @Html.AntiForgeryToken()
}

<div id="myDiv" data-url="@Url.Action("Index", "Home")">
    Click me to send an AJAX request to a controller action
    decorated with the [ValidateAntiForgeryToken] attribute
</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
    $('#myDiv').submit(function () {
        var form = $('#__AjaxAntiForgeryForm');
        var token = $('input[name="__RequestVerificationToken"]', form).val();
        $.ajax({
            url: $(this).data('url'),
            type: 'POST',
            data: { 
                __RequestVerificationToken: token, 
                someValue: 'some value' 
            },
            success: function (result) {
                alert(result.someValue);
            }
        });
        return false;
    });
</script>

Another (less javascriptish) approach, that I did, goes something like this:

First, an Html helper

public static MvcHtmlString AntiForgeryTokenForAjaxPost(this HtmlHelper helper)
{
    var antiForgeryInputTag = helper.AntiForgeryToken().ToString();
    // Above gets the following: <input name="__RequestVerificationToken" type="hidden" value="PnQE7R0MIBBAzC7SqtVvwrJpGbRvPgzWHo5dSyoSaZoabRjf9pCyzjujYBU_qKDJmwIOiPRDwBV1TNVdXFVgzAvN9_l2yt9-nf4Owif0qIDz7WRAmydVPIm6_pmJAI--wvvFQO7g0VvoFArFtAR2v6Ch1wmXCZ89v0-lNOGZLZc1" />
    var removedStart = antiForgeryInputTag.Replace(@"<input name=""__RequestVerificationToken"" type=""hidden"" value=""", "");
    var tokenValue = removedStart.Replace(@""" />", "");
    if (antiForgeryInputTag == removedStart || removedStart == tokenValue)
        throw new InvalidOperationException("Oops! The Html.AntiForgeryToken() method seems to return something I did not expect.");
    return new MvcHtmlString(string.Format(@"{0}:""{1}""", "__RequestVerificationToken", tokenValue));
}

that will return a string

__RequestVerificationToken:"P5g2D8vRyE3aBn7qQKfVVVAsQc853s-naENvpUAPZLipuw0pa_ffBf9cINzFgIRPwsf7Ykjt46ttJy5ox5r3mzpqvmgNYdnKc1125jphQV0NnM5nGFtcXXqoY3RpusTH_WcHPzH4S4l1PmB8Uu7ubZBftqFdxCLC5n-xT0fHcAY1"

so we can use it like this

$(function () {
    $("#submit-list").click(function () {
        $.ajax({
            url: '@Url.Action("SortDataSourceLibraries")',
            data: { items: $(".sortable").sortable('toArray'), @Html.AntiForgeryTokenForAjaxPost() },
            type: 'post',
            traditional: true
        });
    });
});

And it seems to work!

it is so simple! when you use @Html.AntiForgeryToken() in your html code it means that server has signed this page and each request that is sent to server from this particular page has a sign that is prevented to send a fake request by hackers. so for this page to be authenticated by the server you should go through two steps:

1.send a parameter named __RequestVerificationToken and to gets its value use codes below:

<script type="text/javascript">
    function gettoken() {
        var token = '@Html.AntiForgeryToken()';
        token = $(token).val();
        return token;
   }
</script>

for example take an ajax call

$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: "/Account/Login",
    data: {
        __RequestVerificationToken: gettoken(),
        uname: uname,
        pass: pass
    },
    dataType: 'json',
    contentType: 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8',
    success: successFu,
});

and step 2 just decorate your action method by [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]

In Asp.Net Core you can request the token directly, as documented:

@inject Microsoft.AspNetCore.Antiforgery.IAntiforgery Xsrf    
@functions{
    public string GetAntiXsrfRequestToken()
    {
        return Xsrf.GetAndStoreTokens(Context).RequestToken;
    }
}

And use it in javascript:

function DoSomething(id) {
    $.post("/something/todo/"+id,
               { "__RequestVerificationToken": '@GetAntiXsrfRequestToken()' });
}

You can add the recommended global filter, as documented:

services.AddMvc(options =>
{
    options.Filters.Add(new AutoValidateAntiforgeryTokenAttribute());
})

---

Update

The above solution works in scripts that are part of the .cshtml. If this is not the case then you can't use this directly. My solution was to use a hidden field to store the value first.

My workaround, still using GetAntiXsrfRequestToken:

When there is no form:

<input type="hidden" id="RequestVerificationToken" value="@GetAntiXsrfRequestToken()">

The name attribute can be omitted since I use the id attribute.

Each form includes this token. So instead of adding yet another copy of the same token in a hidden field, you can also search for an existing field by name. Please note: there can be multiple forms inside a document, so name is in that case not unique. Unlike an id attribute that should be unique.

In the script, find by id:

function DoSomething(id) {
    $.post("/something/todo/"+id,
       { "__RequestVerificationToken": $('#RequestVerificationToken').val() });
}

---

An alternative, without having to reference the token, is to submit the form with script.

Sample form:

<form id="my_form" action="/something/todo/create" method="post">
</form>

The token is automatically added to the form as a hidden field:

<form id="my_form" action="/something/todo/create" method="post">
<input name="__RequestVerificationToken" type="hidden" value="Cf..." /></form>

And submit in the script:

function DoSomething() {
    $('#my_form').submit();
}

Or using a post method:

function DoSomething() {
    var form = $('#my_form');

    $.post("/something/todo/create", form.serialize());
}

In Asp.Net MVC when you use @Html.AntiForgeryToken() Razor creates a hidden input field with name __RequestVerificationToken to store tokens. If you want to write an AJAX implementation you have to fetch this token yourself and pass it as a parameter to the server so it can be validated.

Step 1: Get the token

var token = $('input[name="`__RequestVerificationToken`"]').val();

Step 2: Pass the token in the AJAX call

function registerStudent() {

var student = {     
    "FirstName": $('#fName').val(),
    "LastName": $('#lName').val(),
    "Email": $('#email').val(),
    "Phone": $('#phone').val(),
};

$.ajax({
    url: '/Student/RegisterStudent',
    type: 'POST',
    data: { 
     __RequestVerificationToken:token,
     student: student,
        },
    dataType: 'JSON',
    contentType:'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8',
    success: function (response) {
        if (response.result == "Success") {
            alert('Student Registered Succesfully!')

        }
    },
    error: function (x,h,r) {
        alert('Something went wrong')
      }
})
};

Note: The content type should be 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8'

I have uploaded the project on Github; you can download and try it.

https://github.com/lambda2016/AjaxValidateAntiForgeryToken