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Feature Proposals » LoginManager should be able to use secure cookies

Summary

Current State: Developer: Reason: Date: Concerns By: Bug Tracking: Proposed For:
ParkedProposal TWiki:Main.StefanWalter None 2010-09-30     KampalaRelease

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Motivation

TWiki::Request supports the 'secure' option for cookies when the connection is over HTTPS but TWiki::LoginManager does not.

As a result, the only way to keep TWiki and the browser from happily sending the session cookie over plain HTTP is to run TWiki over HTTPS only, not even having a redirect from HTTP to HTTPS.

Description and Documentation

I suggest that a configurable extension to TWiki::LoginManager is made to set the 'secure' option for its cookie and only sending it if the TWiki::Request has the secure flag on.

Examples

Impact

WhatDoesItAffect: Security

Implementation

Here is the hard-wired change I made to _pushCookie() that works for me:

sub _pushCookie {
    my $this = shift;
    return unless $this->{twiki}->{request}->protocol() eq 'https';
    my $cookie = CGI::Cookie->new( -name => $TWiki::LoginManager::Session::NAME,
                                   -value => $this->{_cgisession}->id(),
                                   -secure => 1,
                                   -path => '/' );
...

-- Contributors: StefanWalter - 2010-08-27

Discussion

What are the implications if the cookies are not set?

May be safer to add this feature conditionally with a new configure flag, such as {Sessions}{DisableUnsecureCookies}. Use default 0?

-- PeterThoeny - 2010-09-30

If a site is accessible using HTTP and HTTPS the behavior so far is that you can authenticate (for instance over HTTPS) and then switch back to HTTP and still work as authenticated user. Users may feel that this is handy. After restricting the cookie to HTTPS a user will notice that he will be treated as TWikiGuest when going back to HTTP. Depending on the navigation means (other than through WikiWords) or usage patterns (multiple tabs, bookmarks,etc.) this could feel strange to the user.

A configuration flag to enable this conditionally is perfect. I would propose to use EnableSecureCookies though. What default to use is more a question of which TWiki customers are mostly impacted by this and their attitude towards security.

I could live with a default of 0 and a note in the release notes for 5.0.1 to give the people who want the additional security a hint. Defaulting this to 1 would impact sites that treat HTTP and HTTPS as the same and may cause trouble.

-- StefanWalter - 2010-10-01

This proposal needs some TLC and testing to fold into the JerusalemRelease..

-- PeterThoeny - 2011-08-23

Thanks for bringing this up, I'm now using this adaptation:

# Push the standard cookie
sub _pushCookie {
    my $this = shift;

    my $cookie;
    if( $TWiki::cfg{Sessions}{DisableUnsecureCookies} ) {
      # only send session cookies over secure connection when configured so
      return if $this->{twiki}->{request}->protocol() ne 'https';
      $cookie = CGI::Cookie->new( -name => $TWiki::LoginManager::Session::NAME,
                                  -value => $this->{_cgisession}->id(),
                                  -path => '/',
                                  -secure => 1 );
    } else {
      # cookie over http and https
      $cookie = CGI::Cookie->new( -name => $TWiki::LoginManager::Session::NAME,
                                  -value => $this->{_cgisession}->id(),
                                  -path => '/' );
    }
    ...

-- WillemEngen - 2012-08-09

And now that we're at cookie security, does any (known) javascript use the sessionId? If not, it may be useful to also include the httpOnly flag as well.

-- WillemEngen - 2012-08-09

I changed the status to ParkedProposal due to long inactivity. Anybody feel free to claim and implement this feature.

-- Peter Thoeny - 2015-06-18

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Topic revision: r8 - 2015-06-18 - PeterThoeny
 
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