Sessions in the Dev Portal

How does the Sessions Plugin work in the Dev Portal?

When a user logs in to the Dev Portal with their credentials, the Sessions Plugin will create a session cookie. The cookie is used for all subsequent requests and is valid to authenticate the user. The session has a limited duration and renews at a configurable interval, which helps prevent an attacker from obtaining and using a stale cookie after the session has ended.

The Session configuration is secure by default, which may require alteration if using HTTP or different domains for portal_api_url and portal_gui_host. Even if an attacker were to obtain a stale cookie, it would not benefit them since the cookie is encrypted. The encrypted session data may be stored either in Kong or the cookie itself.

Configuration to Use the Sessions Plugin with the Dev Portal

To enable sessions authentication, configure the following:

portal_auth = <set to desired auth type>
portal_session_conf = {
    "secret":"<SET_SECRET>",
    "cookie_name":"<SET_COOKIE_NAME>",
    "storage":"kong",
    "cookie_lifetime":<NUMBER_OF_SECONDS_TO_LIVE>,
    "cookie_renew":<NUMBER_OF_SECONDS_LEFT_TO_RENEW>,
    "cookie_secure":<SET_DEPENDING_ON_PROTOCOL>,
    "cookie_domain":"<SET_DEPENDING_ON_DOMAIN>",
    "cookie_samesite":"<SET_DEPENDING_ON_DOMAIN>"
}

• "cookie_name":"<SET_COOKIE_NAME>": The name of the cookie
  • For example, "cookie_name":"portal_cookie"
• "secret":"<SET_SECRET>": The secret used in keyed HMAC generation. Although the Session Plugin’s default is a random string, the secret must be manually set for use with the Dev Portal since it must be the same across all Kong workers/nodes.
• "storage":"kong": Where session data is stored. This value must be set to kong for use with the Dev Portal.
• "cookie_lifetime":<NUMBER_OF_SECONDS_TO_LIVE>: The duration (in seconds) that the session will remain open; 3600 by default.
• "cookie_renew":<NUMBER_OF_SECONDS_LEFT_TO_RENEW>: The duration (in seconds) of a session remaining at which point the Plugin renews the session; 600 by default.
• "cookie_secure":<SET_DEPENDING_ON_PROTOCOL>: true by default. See Session Security for exceptions.
• "cookie_domain":<SET_DEPENDING_ON_DOMAIN>: Optional. See Session Security for exceptions.
• "cookie_samesite":"<SET_DEPENDING_ON_DOMAIN>": "Strict" by default. See Session Security for exceptions.

⚠️Important: The following properties must not be altered from default for use with the Dev Portal:

• logout_methods
• logout_query_arg
• logout_post_arg

For detailed descriptions of each configuration property, see the Session Plugin documentation.

Session Security

The Session configuration is secure by default, so the cookie uses the Secure, HttpOnly, and SameSite directives.

⚠️Important: The following properties must be altered depending on the protocol and domains in use:

• If using HTTP instead of HTTPS: "cookie_secure": false
• If using different subdomains for the portal_api_url and portal_gui_host, see the example below for Domains.

Example Configurations

HTTPS with the same domain for API and GUI

If using HTTPS and hosting Dev Portal API and the Dev Portal GUI from the same domain, the following configuration could be used for Basic Auth:

portal_auth = basic-auth
portal_session_conf = {
    "cookie_name":"$4m04$"
    "secret":"change-this-secret"
    "storage":"kong"
    "cookie_secure":true
}

In testing, if using HTTP, the following configuration could be used instead:

portal_auth = basic-auth
portal_session_conf = {
    "cookie_name":"04tm34l"
    "secret":"change-this-secret"
    "storage":"kong"
    "cookie_secure":false
}

Domains

The dev portal portal_gui_host and the dev portal api portal_api_url must share a domain or subdomain. The following example assumes subdomains of portal.xyz.com and portalapi.xyz.com. Set a subdomain such as "cookie_domain": ".xyz.com" and set cookie_samesite to off.

portal_auth = basic-auth
portal_session_conf = {
    "storage":"kong"
    "cookie_name":"portal_session"
    "cookie_domain": ".xyz.com"
    "secret":"super-secret"
    "cookie_secure":false
    "cookie_lifetime":31557600,
    "cookie_samesite":"off"
}