#29879: CSRF AJAX section should warn about the CSRF_COOKIE_HTTPONLY setting
-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------
               Reporter:  Brenton    |          Owner:  nobody
  Partridge                          |
                   Type:  New        |         Status:  new
  feature                            |
              Component:             |        Version:  master
  Documentation                      |
               Severity:  Normal     |       Keywords:  csrf, settings
           Triage Stage:             |      Has patch:  0
  Unreviewed                         |
    Needs documentation:  0          |    Needs tests:  0
Patch needs improvement:  0          |  Easy pickings:  1
                  UI/UX:  0          |
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 https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/settings/#csrf-cookie-httponly
 says:

 "If you enable this and need to send the value of the CSRF token with an
 AJAX request, your JavaScript must pull the value from a hidden CSRF token
 form input on the page instead of from the cookie."

 However, the documentation at
 https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/csrf/#ajax makes no mention of
 this setting; it's only barely listed at the bottom of the page. And if
 HttpOnly is set, then the recommendation to read the token from the cookie
 will fail.

 Anyone inheriting a codebase, or using a boilerplate that defaults
 CSRF_COOKIE_HTTPONLY to True, might naturally read the CSRF AJAX page, not
 even realize they need to check CSRF_COOKIE_HTTPONLY, and run into issues
 where it's clear that the CSRF cookie is being set in the browser's
 storage, but isn't readable by `Cookies.get('csrftoken')` (which is
 recommended as the "canonical way to do things").

 If our standard is to include code about how to read cookies, we shouldn't
 assume that the reader would instantly know that this mismatch is due to
 HttpOnly.

 I'd propose modifying the preface and relevant headings on that page from:

 First, you must get the CSRF token. How to do that depends on whether or
 not the CSRF_USE_SESSIONS setting is enabled.

 Acquiring the token if CSRF_USE_SESSIONS is False/True

 to:

 First, you must get the CSRF token. How to do that depends on whether or
 not the CSRF_USE_SESSIONS or CSRF_COOKIE_HTTPONLY setting is enabled.

 Acquiring the token if CSRF_COOKIE_HTTPONLY and CSRF_USE_SESSIONS are
 False

 Acquiring the token if CSRF_COOKIE_HTTPONLY or CSRF_USE_SESSIONS is True

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/29879>
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