CORS

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing

A security feature implemented in web browsers to control how web pages loaded from one domain (origin) can interact with resources from a different domain. CORS is essential for maintaining security while allowing controlled access to resources across different domains. For example, if you’re running a web service and want to allow a trusted partner’s website to access your resources via JavaScript, you’d configure CORS policies to permit this.

CORS is managed through HTTP headers. The server specifies which origins are permitted to access its resources and under what conditions. For instance, a server can set headers to allow specific methods (like GET, POST), headers, and whether credentials (like cookies and HTTP authentication) are allowed in cross-origin requests.

This mechanism is crucial for preventing malicious websites from accessing sensitive data on other sites, which could happen if cross-origin requests were allowed freely. In sales and marketing, understanding CORS is vital for creating seamless and secure integrations between different web services and platforms, especially when dealing with customer data and analytics across various domains.