State Parameter

Authorization protocols provide a state parameter that allows you to restore the previous state of your application. The state parameter preserves some state object set by the client in the Authorization request and makes it available to the client in the response.

CSRF attacks

The primary reason for using the state parameter is to mitigate CSRF attacks.

When you use state for CSRF mitigation on the redirection endpoint, that means that within the state value there is a unique and non-guessable value associated with each authentication request about to be initiated. It’s that unique and non-guessable value that allows you to prevent the attack by confirming if the value coming from the response matches the one you expect (the one you generated when initiating the request). The state parameter is a string so you can encode any other information in it.

The way this works is that you send a random value when starting an authentication request and validate the received value when processing the response. This requires you to store something on the client application side (in session or another medium) that allows you to perform the validation. If you receive a response with a state that does not match, you may be the target of an attack because this is either a response for an unsolicited request or someone trying to forge the response. For more information, see Mitigate CSRF Attacks With State Parameters.

Diagram of CSRF attack

Redirect users

You can also use the state parameter to encode an application state that will round-trip to the client application after the transaction completes. In this way, the application can put the user where they were before the authentication process happened. For more information, see Redirect Users With State Parameters.


  • From a security perspective, neither the request nor the response is integrity-protected so a user can manipulate them. That is true for adding a parameter to the redirect_uri as well.
  • The allowed length for state is not unlimited. If you get the error 414 Request-URI Too Large try a smaller value.

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