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Web & Networking Foundations · Foundational browser security

The Browser as a Security Boundary: Origins and the Same-Origin Policy

Learn what a web origin is, why the browser isolates origins from each other, and what the Same-Origin Policy protects — and what it does not.

Before we begin, here is exactly what you will be able to do by the end of this lesson.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Define a web origin as the exact combination of scheme, host, and port — and state that all three components must match for two URLs to be considered the same origin.
  • Determine whether two given URLs share the same origin, including cases involving different subdomains, schemes, and ports.
  • Explain the Same-Origin Policy's core rule: a script running in one origin may read data from the same origin but not from a different origin.
  • State the critical gap the SOP leaves: it blocks reading cross-origin responses but does not block sending cross-origin requests — the gap that CSRF exploits.
  • Compare URL pairs in the custom Origin Inspector and trace a cross-origin read in the SOP Visualizer.

When you are ready, send Continue.