When you visit a website or log into an application, session management protocols facilitate a smooth user experience that’s specific to your identity, while preventing unauthorized users from gaining access to your account or data.
In other words, robust session management is the foundation for seamless, personalized, and secure interactions between a user and a web application or system. Continue reading below as we discuss session management in further detail and provide some best practices and suggestions for enhanced security.
User session management is an important security function of web applications. It keeps user identities and sensitive data secure during an interaction while orchestrating a seamless navigation experience as the user submits requests and visits different web pages or applications.
Session management is highly versatile and applied across different web applications and systems, keeping user identities protected both in a consumer and workplace environment. Whether a person logs into their bank account to schedule a transfer or an employee accesses a database at work, session management keeps these interactions secure and ensures that only users with the proper permissions are able to perform these actions.
During a session, various requests and responses are transmitted between the user and the web application, with sensitive information like the user’s password and other private data being shared, stored, and processed on the web browser. Thus, session management protocols help to preserve user confidentiality by recognizing and remembering authorized users, preventing their data from falling into the wrong hands, and applying the appropriate access rights and preferences throughout their session.
Session IDs, sometimes referred to as unique identifiers or session tokens, are integral to session management. They are a string of randomly generated characters that identify a specific user session. A session ID is generated by a server when a user makes an initial request, such as logging onto an application, and destroyed when the session ends.
There are both short and long-lived sessions, each serving a unique purpose. A short-lived session has a shorter duration and typically lasts as long as the user remains active within an application or website. If they leave or close the browser, they will need to be re-authenticated before accessing the system. In contrast, a long-lived session lasts until a user manually logs out or is forced to log out, with the session ID stored on their device within a cookie. So, even if they leave the application, they will remain logged in.
The benefit of short-lived sessions is that they are more secure, with the session ending each time the user closes the application or leaves the website. However, short-lived sessions can disrupt the flow of the user experience, requiring them to re-authenticate each time they open the application. This is where long-lived sessions are preferable in certain cases, as they create a more seamless experience. However, the downside is that anyone with access to the device where the session ID is stored can gain access to active sessions.
The security of a session management strategy hinges on the strength of session IDs and how they’re configured. Session IDs should be unique and randomly generated, keeping attackers from successfully guessing or predicting them and compromising user session security.
General recommendations are to generate IDs that are at least 128 bits in length and don’t follow predictable patterns or values, like including the timestamp of the request or using known naming conventions that could easily be guessed. Session IDs should also not contain any sensitive or personally identifiable information (PII) to prevent the risk of exposure in the event of a breach.
Session IDs are transmitted between the user’s browser and the server with cookies. These can either be session cookies, which are temporarily stored on the browser for the duration of the session, or persistent cookies, which are used over a longer duration and stored on the user’s device even after closing the browser.
Robust session management is instrumental in helping organizations mitigate the risks that make a user session vulnerable to attack. Here are some of the specific cyber attacks related to session management protocols that an organization can experience:
A session hijack attack occurs when a cybercriminal accesses a compromised session ID after the user has been authenticated, taking over their session. This type of attack is also called cookie hijacking or TCP session hijacking, and the session token may either be stolen, predicted, or guessed by the attacker.
In this scenario, the attacker impersonates the authorized user and can enjoy the permissions and access that the user has to the system or web application. Since the legitimate user is actively in a session during this type of attack, they may experience the application crashing or appearing unusual.
In many cases, the attacker is hoping to gain access to the user’s passwords or other sensitive information, like payment data. Once they have access to the user’s account, they may make a transaction or purchase, transfer money to an account they control, infect the user’s device with malware, or use stored information to steal the user’s identity.
Another possible type of attack is session fixation, which is similar to a session hijack, though it exhibits some distinct differences. With a session fixation attack, the criminal tries to trick a user into accessing a session that they’ve already established but have yet to be authenticated, usually with a malicious link. In other words, this type of attack begins before a user even logs into a web application, while a session hijack occurs after the fact.
The purpose of a session fixation attack is to access the user’s account and sensitive information. If the user falls into the attacker’s trap and clicks on the provided link, the unauthorized party will be granted access and can impersonate the victim, like with a session hijacking attack.
To prevent these attacks, session management strategies must be in place to safeguard session IDs so they cannot be exploited by bad actors. Further, the application should have guidelines in place to only accept session identifiers generated by the server, mitigating the risk that it was originated by a perpetrator.
Lastly, applications may experience man-in-the-middle attacks, where an attacker puts themselves in between the user and the application, hoping to mimic the regular flow of communication while intercepting critical information or impersonating either party.
In these types of attacks, the perpetrator hopes to access personal information like the user’s password, payment information, and other sensitive data that they can exploit for their own personal gain such as identity theft or initiating fraudulent transactions. However, their goal is to be imperceptible to the end-user or application, raising no flags that something malicious is underway.
