A session replay attack occurs when an attacker intercepts and records a valid data transmission (e.g., an authentication sequence or command) and then re-transmits it later to impersonate the legitimate device. By requiring a unique, randomly generated token (often called a nonce or "number used once") for each new connection or session, the system ensures that any captured transmission becomes invalid for future use. When the attacker replays the old message, the server will reject it because the token has already been used or has expired, thus effectively mitigating the replay attack.

A. Malformed URL injection: This is primarily mitigated by input validation and sanitization on the server-side, not by session tokens.

B. Buffer overflow: This is a memory corruption vulnerability prevented by secure coding practices like bounds checking, not by application-layer tokens.

C. SSL certificate hijacking: This is mitigated by strong Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) management, certificate pinning, and secure key storage, not by session tokens.

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1. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). (2017). NIST Special Publication 800-63B: Digital Identity Guidelines

Authentication and Lifecycle Management.

Section 4.3.3

Replay Resistance: "The verifier SHALL implement a mechanism that is resistant to replay attacks... Common mechanisms for replay resistance include nonces

timestamps

or the use of challenges." This directly links the use of nonces (randomly generated tokens) to the prevention of replay attacks.

2. Perrig

A.

Canetti

R.

Tygar

J. D.

& Song

D. (2002). The TESLA Broadcast Authentication Protocol. RSA CryptoBytes

5(2).

Section 2

Basic TESLA: "To prevent replay attacks

the receiver needs to check that the MAC key... has not been disclosed yet." While discussing a specific protocol

the underlying principle of using time-sensitive or single-use cryptographic material to prevent replays is a foundational concept in network security academic literature. The use of a unique token serves a similar purpose.

3. Kurose

J. F.

& Ross

K. W. (2017). Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach (7th ed.). Pearson.

Chapter 8

Security in Computer Networks: In discussions on authentication protocols (e.g.

Section 8.3)

the text explains the use of a nonce to defend against replay attacks. It states that by having a party send a nonce and requiring it to be returned (often in an encrypted form)

the party can verify the message is fresh and not a replay. This is a standard university-level textbook.