---
title: Jericho's Cybersecurity Glossary | Session Hijacking
description: Session hijacking occurs when an attacker intercepts or takes over an active session between a user and a service, allowing the attacker to gain unauthorized access to the user's account or data.
---

[Jericho Security | Glossary](http://www.jerichosecurity.com/glossary)

# [Jericho's Cybersecurity Glossary | Session Hijacking](http://www.jerichosecurity.com/glossary/session-hijacking)

 Written by [Jericho Security Team](http://www.jerichosecurity.com/glossary/author/jericho-security-team) | September 28, 2024

#### *Definition:*

Session hijacking occurs when an attacker intercepts or takes over an active session between a user and a service, allowing the attacker to gain unauthorized access to the user's account or data.

#### *Use Cases:*

- Used by attackers to gain access to a user's account by stealing session cookies or tokens.
- Employed in web-based attacks where sessions are inadequately protected or encrypted.

#### *Related Terms:*

- [Man-in-the-Middle Attack](https://www.jerichosecurity.com/glossary/man-in-the-middle-attack)
- [Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)](https://www.jerichosecurity.com/glossary/cross-site-scripting)
- Cookie Theft
- [Encryption](https://www.jerichosecurity.com/glossary/data-encryption)

#### *Questions and Answers:*

- **How do attackers perform session hijacking?**Attackers intercept session cookies or session tokens transmitted over insecure channels, allowing them to take control of a user's active session.
- **What are the risks of session hijacking?**Session hijacking can lead to unauthorized access to user accounts, enabling attackers to steal data, perform transactions, or impersonate users.
- **How can session hijacking be prevented?**Session hijacking can be mitigated by using strong encryption (e.g., HTTPS), securing session tokens, and implementing short session expiration times.

[View full post](http://www.jerichosecurity.com/glossary/session-hijacking)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Jericho Security Team"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2024-09-29T14:12:22.199Z",
  "datePublished" : "2024-09-28T19:23:59Z",
  "headline" : "Session Hijacking",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 720,
    "url" : "https://40243630.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/40243630/assets/images/jericho-featured-image.jpg",
    "width" : 1280
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "http://www.jerichosecurity.com/glossary/session-hijacking",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60,
      "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png",
      "width" : 60
    },
    "name" : "Jericho Security | Glossary"
  }
}
```