The sessions plugin adds support for sessions using cookies. It is the recommended way to support sessions in Roda
applications.
The session cookies are encrypted with AES-256-CTR using a separate encryption key per cookie, and then signed with HMAC-SHA-256. By default, session data is padded to reduce information leaked based on the session size.
Sessions
are serialized via JSON, so session information should only store data that allows roundtrips via JSON (String, Integer, Float, Array, Hash, true, false, and nil). In particular, note that Symbol does not round trip via JSON, so symbols should not be used in sessions when this plugin is used. This plugin sets the :sessions_convert_symbols
application option to true
if it hasn’t been set yet, for better integration with plugins that can use either symbol or string session or flash keys. Unlike Rack::Session::Cookie, the session is stored as a plain ruby hash, and does not convert all keys to strings.
All sessions are timestamped and session expiration is enabled by default, with sessions being valid for 30 days maximum and 7 days since last use by default. Session creation time is reset whenever the session is empty when serialized and also whenever clear_session
is called while processing the request.
Session secrets can be rotated. See options below.
The sessions plugin can transparently upgrade sessions from versions of Rack::Session::Cookie shipped with Rack before Rack 3, if the default Rack::Session::Cookie coder and HMAC are used, see options below. It is recommended to only enable transparent upgrades for a brief transition period, and remove support for them once old sessions have converted or timed out.
If the final cookie is too large (>=4096 bytes), a Roda::RodaPlugins::Sessions::CookieTooLarge
exception will be raised.
Required Options¶ ↑
The session cookies this plugin uses are both encrypted and signed, so two separate secrets are used internally. However, for ease of use, these secrets are combined into a single :secret
option. The :secret
option must be a string of at least 64 bytes and should be randomly generated. The first 32 bytes are used as the secret for the cipher, any remaining bytes are used for the secret for the HMAC.
Other Options¶ ↑
:cookie_options |
Any cookie options to set on the session cookie. By default, uses |
:gzip_over |
For session data over this many bytes, compress it with the deflate algorithm (default: nil, so never compress). Note that compression should not be enabled if you are storing data in the session derived from user input and also storing sensitive data in the session. |
:key |
The cookie name to use (default: |
:max_seconds |
The maximum number of seconds to allow for total session lifetime, starting with when the session was originally created. Default is |
:max_idle_seconds |
The maximum number of seconds to allow since the session was last updated. Default is |
:old_secret |
The previous secret to use, allowing for secret rotation. Must be a string of at least 64 bytes if given. |
:pad_size |
Pad session data (after possible compression, before encryption), to a multiple of this many bytes (default: 32). This can be between 2-4096 bytes, or |
:per_cookie_cipher_secret |
Uses a separate cipher key for every cookie, with the key used generated using HMAC-SHA-256 of 32 bytes of random data with the default cipher secret. This offers additional protection in case the random initialization vector used when encrypting the session data has been reused. Odds of that are 1 in 2**64 if initialization vector is truly random, but weaknesses in the random number generator could make the odds much higher. Default is |
:parser |
The parser for the serialized session data (default: |
:serializer |
The serializer for the session data (default |
:skip_within |
If the last update time for the session cookie is less than this number of seconds from the current time, and the session has not been modified, do not set a new session cookie (default: 3600). |
:upgrade_from_rack_session_cookie_key |
The cookie name to use for transparently upgrading from Rack::Session:Cookie (defaults to |
:upgrade_from_rack_session_cookie_secret |
The secret for the HMAC-SHA1 signature when allowing transparent upgrades from Rack::Session::Cookie. Using this option is only recommended during a short transition period, and is not enabled by default as it lowers security. |
:upgrade_from_rack_session_cookie_options |
Options to pass when deleting the cookie used by Rack::Session::Cookie after converting it to use the session cookies used by this plugin. |
Not a Rack Middleware
¶ ↑
Unlike some other approaches to sessions, the sessions plugin does not use a rack middleware, so session information is not available to other rack middleware, only to the application itself, with the session not being loaded from the cookie until the session
method is called.
If you need rack middleware to access the session information, then require 'roda/session_middleware'
and use RodaSessionMiddleware
. RodaSessionMiddleware
passes the options given to this plugin.
Session Cookie Cryptography/Format¶ ↑
Session cookies created by this plugin by default use the following format:
urlsafe_base64("\1" + random_data + IV + encrypted session data + HMAC)
If :per_cookie_cipher_secret
option is set to false
, an older format is used:
urlsafe_base64("\0" + IV + encrypted session data + HMAC)
where:
version |
1 byte, currently must be 1 or 0, other values reserved for future expansion. |
random_data |
32 bytes, used for generating the per-cookie secret |
IV |
16 bytes, initialization vector for AES-256-CTR cipher. |
encrypted session data |
>=12 bytes of data encrypted with AES-256-CTR cipher, see below. |
HMAC |
32 bytes, HMAC-SHA-256 of all preceding data plus cookie key (so that a cookie value for a different key cannot be used even if the secret is the same). |
The encrypted session data uses the following format:
bitmap + creation time + update time + padding + serialized data
where:
bitmap |
2 bytes in little endian format, lower 12 bits storing number of padding bytes, 13th bit storing whether serialized data is compressed with deflate. Bits 14-16 reserved for future expansion. |
creation time |
4 byte integer in unsigned little endian format, storing unix timestamp since session initially created. |
update time |
4 byte integer in unsigned little endian format, storing unix timestamp since session last updated. |
padding |
>=0 padding bytes specified in bitmap, filled with random data, can be ignored. |
serialized data |
>=2 bytes of serialized data in JSON format. If the bitmap indicates deflate compression, this contains the deflate compressed data. |
Classes and Modules
Constants
DEFAULT_COOKIE_OPTIONS | = | {:httponly=>true, :path=>'/'.freeze, :same_site=>:lax}.freeze | ||
DEFAULT_OPTIONS | = | {:key => 'roda.session'.freeze, :max_seconds=>86400*30, :max_idle_seconds=>86400*7, :pad_size=>32, :gzip_over=>nil, :skip_within=>3600}.freeze | ||
DEFLATE_BIT | = | 0x1000 | ||
PADDING_MASK | = | 0x0fff | ||
SESSION_CREATED_AT | = | 'roda.session.created_at'.freeze | ||
SESSION_DELETE_RACK_COOKIE | = | 'roda.session.delete_rack_session_cookie'.freeze | ||
SESSION_SERIALIZED | = | 'roda.session.serialized'.freeze | ||
SESSION_UPDATED_AT | = | 'roda.session.updated_at'.freeze | ||
SESSION_VERSION_NUM | = | 'roda.session.version'.freeze |
Public Class methods
Configure the plugin, see Sessions
for details on options.
# File lib/roda/plugins/sessions.rb 179 def self.configure(app, opts=OPTS) 180 opts = (app.opts[:sessions] || DEFAULT_OPTIONS).merge(opts) 181 co = opts[:cookie_options] = DEFAULT_COOKIE_OPTIONS.merge(opts[:cookie_options] || OPTS).freeze 182 opts[:remove_cookie_options] = co.merge(:max_age=>'0', :expires=>Time.at(0)) 183 opts[:parser] ||= app.opts[:json_parser] || JSON.method(:parse) 184 opts[:serializer] ||= app.opts[:json_serializer] || :to_json.to_proc 185 186 opts[:per_cookie_cipher_secret] = true unless opts.has_key?(:per_cookie_cipher_secret) 187 opts[:session_version_num] = opts[:per_cookie_cipher_secret] ? 1 : 0 188 189 if opts[:upgrade_from_rack_session_cookie_secret] 190 opts[:upgrade_from_rack_session_cookie_key] ||= 'rack.session' 191 rsco = opts[:upgrade_from_rack_session_cookie_options] = Hash[opts[:upgrade_from_rack_session_cookie_options] || OPTS] 192 rsco[:path] ||= co[:path] 193 rsco[:domain] ||= co[:domain] 194 end 195 196 opts[:cipher_secret], opts[:hmac_secret] = split_secret(:secret, opts[:secret]) 197 opts[:old_cipher_secret], opts[:old_hmac_secret] = (split_secret(:old_secret, opts[:old_secret]) if opts[:old_secret]) 198 199 case opts[:pad_size] 200 when nil 201 # no changes 202 when Integer 203 raise RodaError, "invalid :pad_size: #{opts[:pad_size]}, must be >=2, < 4096" unless opts[:pad_size] >= 2 && opts[:pad_size] < 4096 204 else 205 raise RodaError, "invalid :pad_size option: #{opts[:pad_size].inspect}, must be Integer or nil" 206 end 207 208 app.opts[:sessions] = opts.freeze 209 app.opts[:sessions_convert_symbols] = true unless app.opts.has_key?(:sessions_convert_symbols) 210 end
# File lib/roda/plugins/sessions.rb 174 def self.load_dependencies(app, opts=OPTS) 175 app.plugin :_base64 176 end
Split given secret into a cipher secret and an hmac secret.
# File lib/roda/plugins/sessions.rb 166 def self.split_secret(name, secret) 167 raise RodaError, "sessions plugin :#{name} option must be a String" unless secret.is_a?(String) 168 raise RodaError, "invalid sessions plugin :#{name} option length: #{secret.bytesize}, must be >=64" unless secret.bytesize >= 64 169 hmac_secret = secret = secret.dup.force_encoding('BINARY') 170 cipher_secret = secret.slice!(0, 32) 171 [cipher_secret.freeze, hmac_secret.freeze] 172 end