Apache Module mod_session_cookie

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Description:	Cookie based session support
Status:	Extension
Module Identifier:	session_cookie_module
Source File:	mod_session_cookie.c
Compatibility:	Available in Apache 2.3 and later

Summary

Warning

The session modules make use of HTTP cookies, and as such can fall victim to Cross Site Scripting attacks, or expose potentially private information to clients. Please ensure that the relevant risks have been taken into account before enabling the session functionality on your server.

This submodule of mod_session provides support for the storage of user sessions on the remote browser within HTTP cookies.

Using cookies to store a session removes the need for the server or a group of servers to store the session locally, or collaborate to share a session, and can be useful for high traffic environments where a server based session might be too resource intensive.

If session privacy is required, the mod_session_crypto module can be used to encrypt the contents of the session before writing the session to the client.

For more details on the session interface, see the documentation for the mod_session module.

Topics

Basic Examples

Basic Examples

To create a simple session and store it in a cookie called session, configure the session as follows:

Browser based session

Session On
SessionCookieName session path=/

For more examples on how the session can be configured to be read from and written to by a CGI application, see the mod_session examples section.

For documentation on how the session can be used to store username and password details, see the mod_auth_form module.

SessionCookieName Directive

Description:	Name and attributes for the RFC2109 cookie storing the session
Syntax:	`SessionCookieName name attributes`
Default:	`none`
Context:	server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess
Status:	Extension
Module:	mod_session_cookie

The SessionCookieName directive specifies the name and optional attributes of an RFC2109 compliant cookie inside which the session will be stored. RFC2109 cookies are set using the Set-Cookie HTTP header.

An optional list of cookie attributes can be specified, as per the example below. These attributes are inserted into the cookie as is, and are not interpreted by Apache. Ensure that your attributes are defined correctly as per the cookie specification.

Cookie with attributes

Session On
SessionCookieName session path=/private;domain=example.com;httponly;secure;version=1;

SessionCookieName2 Directive

Description:	Name and attributes for the RFC2965 cookie storing the session
Syntax:	`SessionCookieName2 name attributes`
Default:	`none`
Context:	server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess
Status:	Extension
Module:	mod_session_cookie

The SessionCookieName2 directive specifies the name and optional attributes of an RFC2965 compliant cookie inside which the session will be stored. RFC2965 cookies are set using the Set-Cookie2 HTTP header.

Cookie2 with attributes

Session On
SessionCookieName2 session path=/private;domain=example.com;httponly;secure;version=1;

SessionCookieRemove Directive

Description:	Control for whether session cookies should be removed from incoming HTTP headers
Syntax:	`SessionCookieRemove On\|Off`
Default:	`SessionCookieRemove Off`
Context:	server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess
Status:	Extension
Module:	mod_session_cookie

The SessionCookieRemove flag controls whether the cookies containing the session will be removed from the headers during request processing.

In a reverse proxy situation where the Apache server acts as a server frontend for a backend origin server, revealing the contents of the session cookie to the backend could be a potential privacy violation. When set to on, the session cookie will be removed from the incoming HTTP headers.