I am working on a site that involves logging in through discord, which uses oauth2. I believe the login is controlled by the phpsessid cookie, from what i can tell. My problem is this cookie resets when the browser is closed, meaning whenever the browser closes, the user has to log back in.
I was wondering if there was a way to keep the session running even after closing the browser, or maybe a different method to keep the user logged in? I found the PHP function session_set_cookie_params() that could be useful, but I'm not sure how I can use this in my situation.
In order to store data even if you close the browser, you need to use cookies. With PHP, you need to use the setcookie() method.
Default example:
<?php
setcookie('yourCookieName', "yourCookieValue");
?>
Another example:
<?php
setcookie('yourCookieName', "yourCookieValue", time() + 365*24*3600, '/', '.yourdomain.com');
?>
I have added some parameters as time and a way to keep the cookie for all the website subdomains.
And then, if you can get the cookie with $_COOKIE['yourCookieName'].
You can try to use javascript to acces that cookie and then save it as a new cookie on your website,and then load it when the user connects.Look on w3school javascript cookies
Related
Are cookies necessary to create a login page with php (that keeps you logged in across several pages), or could a session variable do the trick without use of cookies?
Answer simply is yes.
Sessions rely on a session id.
Sessions in php use a cookie to store this id, but you can change it to append the id to each url instead of saving it in cookies.
ini_set('session.use_cookies', false);
in the config variable url_rewriter.tags, you see which URLs automatically get rewritten to append this id:
"a=href,area=href,frame=src,form=,fieldset="
As Pekka mentions, jQuery requests and special JS/Ajax/jQuery calls are not getting rewritten by default and you have to append the id manually like:
<script>
$.get('/yourpage/?PHPSESSID=<?php echo session_id(); ?>');
</script>
the session name can be obtained via session_name();, default is in the config variable: session.name.
Use ini_get(); or phpinfo(); to see your configuration.
Actually if you are using sessions you can use a cookie or a special GET/POST fields to identify yourself towards the server. The server then using the user id, passed either by GET/POST or a cookie - knows which data set is connected to the current user/client at server side. This way using sessions you can store data at server side with only sending a special user id to the client.
This way you can save login data for each user, thus login functionality can be implemented using sessions in PHP.
And yes, you can solve login with no other cookie just the Session user ID, or use the POST/GET session id.
Typically sessions are more reliable when working with keeping a user logged in. Sessions are stored on the server, whereas cookies are stored client sided. So that falls down to: do you want your login dependent on something the client can control and manipulate?
I've had first hand issues with logins being hacked with cookies, so I suggest sessions.
No, you do not need cookies in order to set up a login system, sessions suffice. However, if you seek a "Remember me" option, you need cookies in order to keep the user logged in beyond the point when the user closes the browser or the session expires.
http://www.php.net/manual/en/features.sessions.php
For maintaining a session with server, you need to identify yourself (your page) to server. So that server can keep track of your page's subsequent request and maintain a session.
So, if you only have username and password option on your login page, then cookies may not be required. Refer to the following link:
Passing the Session ID from page to Server
You can have a special URL which will have identifier as part of URL, which will inform server about your subsequent request.
However, please note that using this type of special URL is not always the recommended approach. Because this is insecure than cookie based session. For example, someone may paste their own link on a chat or in an email, and other person will be entered to your site without username/password.
You can do authentication without cookies (or sessions which are a special case of cookies) but it won't be on a page. This method is called HTTP Authentication.
I have an application where the login and logout works correctly. Once the user logs out, and tries to access a page he needs authentication for, he is redirected to the login screen.
Where my problem lies is. If while I am logged in, if I copy the cookie values and save them on a file. After logout, I alter the cookie and add the same values, I get logged back in into the application as the same user.
On logout I have written a function that loops over all the cookies and deletes them.
My understanding is that cookies are both on the client and also on the server side. So if the cookies are getting deleted, they are getting deleted on both the sides and that the server would not recognize them after they have been cleared, even if the browser sends them back again(apparently that is not the case, i think).
The reason why I am doing this is because this is one of the points raised by our security auditor, and I need to get a way to fix this hole. (At this point doing https is not feasible)
I'd be happy if someone can give me pointers on how I can clear out the cookies on the server side as well, so, when the next time someone hits the server with the same cookie, it does not accept it as a valid cookie.
Edit:
I am using codeigniter sessions and tank_auth as the authentication library. At logout, the library itself calls
$this->ci->session->sess_destroy();
to be extra sure, I tried the following after a few attempts :
session_start();
session_unset();
session_destroy();
session_write_close();
setcookie(session_name(),'',0,'/');
session_regenerate_id(true);
My regular logout works, and if I try to access the page directly it does not open.
But if while I am logged in, I take my cookie, save it somewhere -- log-out successfully and replace the cookie with my older one, I get right back into the session.
Is there a way to stop this behavior -- Where the server side will not entertain a session after it has been destroyed. I also made sure that my server and php are on the same timezone (setting it with date_default_timezone_set).
Cookies are not stored on the server at all. Those are stored in the browser and then sent to the server in the request headers. You can easily find software and plugins for browsers that allow you to create/edit/delete cookies. For that reason you should never store sensitive information in cookies. Essentially what you want to do is store the user data in a session and then store the session name in a cookie. Usually this is done automatically in php when you use the function session_start().
If you are using Codeigniter, the php session functions are wrapped in a CI session library that is auto loaded on each page load. So instead of storing data in $_COOKIE you will want to get/set your data via the userdata method in the session library:
//in your controller
//save session data
$userdata = array(
"isLoggedIn"=>true,
"username"=>$_POST['username']
);
$this->session->set_userdata($userdata);
//get session data later
$isLoggedIn = $this->session->userdata("isLoggedIn");
if(!$isLoggedIn){
//if the user is not logged in, destroy the session and send to the login screen
$this->session->sess_destroy();
redirect("/");
}
Note that the code above is not tested and is only supposed to give you an idea on where to go. If the session methods aren't working for you, you may need to load the library in manually:
//in the __construct method of your controller:
$this->load->library("session");
You can find more information here:
http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/libraries/sessions.html
and here:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.session.php
Thanks for you answers guys.
This is what I figured, later. I am not sure what was causing this but the sessions were not getting invalidated after trying everything. I moved the sessions on codeigniter to the database. Then the logouts started working correctly, where after logout if the 'stolen'/'saved' cookie was put in the browser again it would Not log the user back in.
So, thats what solved it.
I use OAuth to authenticate at an external website. Everything is okay but the session variable misses after redirecting from external websites.
Summary:
I store a session var in my website then go to login page of other website. After logging in and confirming, it redirects to my callback, when I check the previous session var, it misses! How to fix it?
I tried to call session_start() everywhere I use session but it doesn't work. Of course I enabled session in "php.ini" and enabled cookie in browser. :) I debugged but can't find the reason out.
Update:
After storing my session var, I do a request like this:
http://mixi.jp/connect_authorize.pl?oauth_callback=http%3A%2F%2Fmypage.com%2Fcallback.php&oauth_token=fjdklsfjlksd
Note the oauth_callback, it is the redirect URL. I don't know what mixi.jp use to redirect.
Make sure your site's domain is 100% identical before and after the redirection.
Note that
www.yoursite.com
and
yoursite.com
are two different sites cookie-wise.
The session id is stored in a cookie. The cookie is send in every page of the domain you registered in. Whe you jump to another domain, your cookie with the session id is not send. You must pass the session id to your new domain and then create a new cookie in this domain with the session id.
header('Location:redirect.php?session=' . session_id());
And then in the redirected page restore the session
<?php
session_id($_GET['session']);
session_start();
I'm new to the cookie. But I think I might have done some wrong with my PHP code. During login process I have a verify login script that verifies the user. And if the user passes it the script will automatically set a cookie, setcookie("userid", $row["profileId"], time() + 24*3600*14); and the script also redirects the user to the main page with header("Location: ../../index.php"); As I'm looking on the network tab in Google Chrome's developer tools, I can see the cookie just for the verify script, both request cookie and response cookie. But why can't see this on all other AJAX request? I can't retrieve the cookies at all, what have I done wrong? I know I have made some common pitfall
The only Cookie I can retrieve is the session cookie. I need the retrieve the cookie using $_COOKIE in php. I'm using localhost as the domain
Cookies are fully automatic. You don't need to grab them in js to send them. The ajax call with automatically send them in the request, you can even set more with the response. But you must be on the same domain for any of this to work. Cross domain cookies are disabled for security.
cookies are client side, http://plugins.jquery.com/project/Cookie
I am in need of session variable must be exist even after browser closed or system shutdown.
But in my page it will not support session scope between browsers that is at first i signin with firefox while i login with chrome browser it comes to login page . Why these happen . Please any body help me to solve this problem.
Thanks and Regards,
Alagar Pandi.P
alagar.pandi#gmail.com
Session scope between browsers is not possible. Sessions are identified by a token, which must first be given to the user, and then passed back later by the browser in some form. Generally this is done with cookies, although it can also be done by appending the token to URLs as the visitor browses around the site.
Since web browsers are separate pieces of software with their own methods of handling cookies, you cannot share cookies between browsers, and therefore you cannot share cookie-based sessions. It is possible to copy-and-paste a URL from a web site that contains a session token into another browser and continue the session there, but most sites use cookies, so this is not often possible, and it certainly doesn't accomplish what you would like to do.
What you ask is generally considered impossible, but also usually not an issue. On the plus side, it is also a process generally understood by most users. Users do not expect to log in to a site with one browser, and then boot up another and still be logged in.
session expiry between browser and
after browser or system shutdown ?
Neither after browser close nor system shutdown
Session is expired when its get timeout on server side, and it depends on each web server settings, for example, after 20 mintues.
Cookies are the only way to track users. They can either be persistent or not. If a cookie is persistent it is stored in the user's computer as a file and has an expiration date but only the browser that created it will be able to access it again. There's no way to achieve cross-browser cookies.
Then you should use. Client side cookies rather than session variables.
Session exists only until the browser close or system shutdown.
If you still want to proceed with session variable, then store the session value in the DB and whenever the login page loads check the db if the user hasn't signed out manually, if yes then show him main page otherwise show hime the login page.