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lua-resty-session

lua-resty-session is a secure, and flexible session library for OpenResty.

Hello World with lua-resty-session

worker_processes  1;

events {
    worker_connections  1024;
}

http {
    server {
        listen       8080;
        server_name  localhost;
        default_type text/html;
        location / {
            content_by_lua '
                ngx.say("<html><body><a href=/start>Start the test</a>!</body></html>")
            ';
        }
        location /start {
            content_by_lua '
                local session = require "resty.session".start()
                session.data.name = "OpenResty Fan"
                session:save()
                ngx.say("<html><body>Session started. ",
                        "<a href=/test>Check if it is working</a>!</body></html>")
            ';
        }
        location /test {
            content_by_lua '
                local session = require "resty.session".open()
                ngx.say("<html><body>Session was started by <strong>",
                        session.data.name or "Anonymous",
                        "</strong>! <a href=/destroy>Destroy the session</a>.</body></html>")
            ';
        }
        location /destroy {
            content_by_lua '
                local session = require "resty.session".start()
                session:destroy()
                ngx.say("<html><body>Session was destroyed. ",
                        "<a href=/check>Is it really so</a>?</body></html>")
            ';
        }
        location /check {
            content_by_lua '
                local session = require "resty.session".open()
                ngx.say("<html><body>Session was really destroyed, you are known as ",
                        "<strong>",
                        session.data.name or "Anonymous",
                        "</strong>! <a href=/>Start again</a>.</body></html>")
            ';
        }
    }
}

Roadmap

  • Add support for different schemes:
    • Encrypt-and-MAC: The ciphertext is generated by encrypting the plaintext and then appending a MAC of the plaintext.
    • MAC-then-encrypt: The ciphertext is generated by appending a MAC to the plaintext and then encrypting everything.
    • Encrypt-then-MAC: The ciphertext is generated by encrypting the plaintext and then appending a MAC of the encrypted plaintext.
    • Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data (AEAD)
  • Add support for HMAC plugins
  • Add support for lua-resty-nettle for more wide variety of encryption algorithms as a plugin.
  • Implement cookieless server-side session support using ssl_session_id as a session.id (using a server-side storage).

Installation

Just place session.lua and session directory somewhere in your package.path, under resty directory. If you are using OpenResty, the default location would be /usr/local/openresty/lualib/resty.

Using OpenResty Package Manager (opm)

$ opm get bungle/lua-resty-session

Using LuaRocks

$ luarocks install lua-resty-session

LuaRocks repository for lua-resty-session is located at https://luarocks.org/modules/bungle/lua-resty-session.

About The Defaults

lua-resty-session does by default set session only cookies (non-persistent, and HttpOnly) so that the cookies are not readable from Javascript (not subjectible to XSS in that matter). It will also set Secure flag by default when the request was made via SSL/TLS connection. Cookies send via SSL/TLS don't work when sent via HTTP and vice-versa (unless the checks are disabled). By default the HMAC key is generated from session id (random bytes generated with OpenSSL), expiration time, unencrypted data, and Nginx variables ssl_session_id (if requested with TLS/SSL), http_user_agent and scheme. You may also configure it to use remote_addr as well by setting set $session_check_addr on; (but this may be problematic with clients behind proxies or NATs that change the remote address between requests).

The data part is encrypted with AES-algorithm (by default it uses OpenSSL EVP_aes_256_cbc and EVP_sha512 functions that are provided with lua-resty-string. They come pre-installed with the default OpenResty bundle. The lua-resty-session library is not tested with all the resty.aes functions (but the defaults are tested to be working). Please let me know or contact lua-resty-string project if you hit any problems with different algorithms. We also support pluggable cipher adapters. You can also disable encryption by choosing none adapter.

Session identifier length is by default 16 bytes (randomly generated data with OpenSSL RAND_bytes function). The server secret is also generated by default with this same function and it's default length is 32 bytes. This will work until Nginx is restarted, but you might want to consider setting your own secret using set $session_secret 623q4hR325t36VsCD3g567922IC0073T;, for example (this will work in farms installations as well, but you are then responsible for rotating the secret). On farm installations you should also configure other session configuration variables the same on all the servers in the farm.

Cookie parts are encoded with cookie safe Base64 encoding (we also support pluggable encoders). Before encrypting and encoding the data part, the data is serialized with JSON encoding (so you can use basic Lua types in data, and expect to receive them back as the same Lua types). JSON encoding is done by the bundled OpenResty cJSON library (Lua cJSON). We do support pluggable serializers as well, though only serializer currently supplied is JSON. Cookie's path scope is by default / (meaning that it will be send to all paths in the server. The domain scope is not set by default, and it means that the cookie will only be sent back to same domain where it originated.

For session data we do support pluggable storage adapters. The default adapter is cookie that stores data to client-side cookie. Currently we do also support a few server side storages: shm (aka a shared dictionary), memcache, and redis.

Notes About Turning Lua Code Cache Off

In issue (#15) it was raised that there may be problems of using lua-resty-session when the lua_code_cache setting has been turned off.

Nginx:

lua_code_cache off;

The problem is caused by the fact that by default we do generate session secret automatically with a random generator (on first use of the library). If the code cache is turned off, we regenerate the secret on each request. That will invalidate the cookies aka making sessions non-functioning. The cure for this problem is to define the secret in Nginx or in Lua code (it is a good idea to always have session secret defined).

Nginx:

set $session_secret 623q4hR325t36VsCD3g567922IC0073T;

Lua:

local session = require "resty.session".start{ secret = "623q4hR325t36VsCD3g567922IC0073T" }
-- or
local session = require "resty.session".new()
session.secret = "623q4hR325t36VsCD3g567922IC0073T"

Pluggable Storage Adapters

With version 2.0 we started to support pluggable session data storage adapters. We do currently have support for these backends:

  • cookie aka Client Side Cookie (this is the default adapter)
  • shm aka Lua Shared Dictionary
  • memcache aka Memcached Storage Backend (thanks @zandbelt)
  • redis aka Redis Backend

Here are some comparisons about the backends:

cookie shm memcache redis
Stateless
Lockless ¹ ¹ ¹
Works with Web Farms
Session Data Stored on Client
Zero Configuration
Extra Dependencies
Extra Security ²

¹ Can be configured lockless.

² HMAC is stored on a client but the data is stored on a server. That means that you are unable to edit cookie if you cannot edit server side storage as well, and vice-versa.

The storage adapter can be selected from Nginx config like this:

set $session_storage shm;

Or with Lua code like this:

local session = require "resty.session".new()
-- After new you cannot specify storage as a string, you need to give actual implementation
session.storage = require "resty.session.storage.shm"
-- or
local session = require "resty.session".new({ storage = "shm" })

Cookie Storage Adapter

Cookie storage adapter is the default adapter that is used if storage adapter has not been configured. Cookie adapter does not have any settings.

Cookie adapter can be selected with configuration (if no configuration is present, the cookie adapter is picked up):

set $session_storage cookie;

NOTE:

If you store large amounts of data in a cookie, this library will automatically split the cookies to 4k chars chunks. With large cookies, you may need to adjust your Nginx configuration to accept large client header buffers. E.g.:

large_client_header_buffers 4 16k;

Shared Dictionary Storage Adapter

Shared dictionary uses OpenResty shared dictionary and works with multiple worker processes, but it isn't a good choice if you want to run multiple separate frontends. It is relatively easy to configure and has some added benefits on security side compared to cookie, although the normal cookie adapter is quite secure as well. For locking the shm adapter uses lua-resty-lock.

Shared dictionary adapter can be selected with configuration:

set $session_storage shm;

But for this to work, you will also need a storage configured for that:

http {
   lua_shared_dict sessions 10m;
}

Additionally you can configure the locking and some other things as well:

set $session_shm_store         sessions;
set $session_shm_uselocking    on;
set $session_shm_lock_exptime  30;
set $session_shm_lock_timeout  5;
set $session_shm_lock_step     0.001;
set $session_shm_lock_ratio    2;
set $session_shm_lock_max_step 0.5;

The keys stored in shared dictionary are in form:

{session id} and {session id}.lock.

Memcache Storage Adapter

Memcache storage adapter stores the session data inside Memcached server. It is scalable and works with web farms.

Memcache adapter can be selected with configuration:

set $session_storage memcache;

Additionally you can configure Memcache adapter with these settings:

set $session_memcache_prefix        sessions;
set $session_memcache_socket        unix:///var/run/memcached/memcached.sock;
set $session_memcache_host          127.0.0.1;
set $session_memcache_port          11211;
set $session_memcache_uselocking    on;
set $session_memcache_spinlockwait  10000;
set $session_memcache_maxlockwait   30;
set $session_memcache_pool_timeout  45;
set $session_memcache_pool_size     10;

The keys stored in Memcached are in form:

{prefix}:{session id} and {prefix}:{session id}.lock.

Redis Storage Adapter

Redis storage adapter stores the session data inside Redis server. It is scalable and works with web farms.

Redis adapter can be selected with configuration:

set $session_storage redis;

Additionally you can configure Redis adapter with these settings:

set $session_redis_prefix        sessions;
set $session_redis_socket        unix:///var/run/redis/redis.sock;
set $session_redis_host          127.0.0.1;
set $session_redis_port          6379;
set $session_redis_auth          password;
set $session_redis_uselocking    on;
set $session_redis_spinlockwait  10000;
set $session_redis_maxlockwait   30;
set $session_redis_pool_timeout  45;
set $session_redis_pool_size     10;

The keys stored in Redis are in form:

{prefix}:{session id} and {prefix}:{session id}.lock.

Implementing a Storage Adapter

It is possible to implement additional storage adapters using the plugin architecture in lua-resty-session.

You need to implement at least these APIs:

  • table adapter.new(opts)
  • id, expires, data, hmac adapter:open(cookie, lifetime)
  • cookie adapter:save(id, expires, data, hmac)

There are a few additional hooks that you may want to attach:

  • ok, error adapter:start(id)
  • ok, error adapter:destroy(id)

You have to place your adapter inside resty.session.storage for auto-loader to work.

To configure session to use your adapter, you can do so with Nginx configuration (or in Lua code):

# Just an example. Pull request for MySQL support are greatly welcomed.
set $session_storage mysql;

Pluggable Ciphers

With version 2.1 we started to support pluggable ciphers. We currently have support for these ciphers:

  • aes aka AES encryption / decryption using lua-resty-string's AES library (the default).
  • none aka no encryption or decryption is done.

The cipher adapter can be selected from Nginx config like this:

set $session_cipher aes;

Or with Lua code like this:

local session = require "resty.session".start{ cipher = "aes" }

AES Cipher

AES Cipher uses lua-resty-string's (an OpenResty core library) AES implementation (bindings to OpenSSL) for encryption.

AES adapter can be selected with configuration:

set $session_cipher aes;

Additionally you can configure Memcache adapter with these settings:

set $session_aes_size   256;
set $session_aes_mode   "cbc";
set $session_aes_hash   "sha512";
set $session_aes_rounds 1;

Here follows the description of each setting:

size

session.aes.size holds the size of the cipher (lua-resty-string supports AES in 128, 192, and 256 bits key sizes). See aes.cipher function in lua-resty-string for more information. By default this will use 256 bits key size. This can be configured with Nginx set $session_aes_size 256;.

mode

session.aes.mode holds the mode of the cipher. lua-resty-string supports AES in ecb, cbc, cfb1, cfb8, cfb128, ofb, and ctr modes (ctr mode is not available with 256 bit keys). See aes.cipher function in lua-resty-string for more information. By default cbc mode is used. This can be configured with Nginx set $session_aes_mode cbc;.

hash

session.aes.hash is used in ecryption key, and iv derivation (see: OpenSSL EVP_BytesToKey). By default sha512 is used but md5, sha1, sha224, sha256, and sha384 are supported as well in lua-resty-string. This can be configured with Nginx set $session_aes_hash sha512;.

rounds

session.aes.rounds can be used to slow-down the encryption key, and iv derivation. By default this is set to 1 (the fastest). This can be configured with Nginx set $session_aes_rounds 1;.

None Cipher

None cipher disables encryption of the session data. This can be handy if you want to debug things or want you session management as light as possible, or perhaps share the session data with some other process without having to deal with encryption key management. In general it is better to have encryption enabled in a production.

None adapter can be selected with configuration:

set $session_cipher none;

There isn't any settings for None adapter as it is basically a no-op adapter.

Implementing a Cipher Adapter

If you want to write your own cipher adapter, you need to implement these three methods:

  • table adapter.new(opts)
  • string adapter:encrypt(data, key, iv or salt, associated data)
  • string adapter:decrypt(ciphertext, key, iv or salt, associated data)

If you do not use say iv or associated data in your cipher, you can ignore them.

You have to place your adapter inside resty.session.ciphers for auto-loader to work.

Pluggable Serializers

Currently we only support JSON serializer, but there is a plugin architecture that you can use to plugin your own serializer. The serializer is used to serialize session data in a form that can be later deserialized and stored in some of our supported storages.

The supported serializer names are:

  • json

You need only to implement two functions to write an adapter:

  • string adapter.serialize(table)
  • table adapter.deserialize(string)

You have to place your adapter inside resty.session.serializers for auto-loader to work.

To configure session to use your adapter, you can do so with Nginx configuration (or in Lua code):

set $session_serializer json;

Pluggable Encoders

Cookie data needs to be encoded in cookie form before it is send to client. We support two encoding methods by default: modified cookie friendly base-64, and base-16 (or hexadecimal encoding).

The supported encoder names are:

  • base64
  • base16 or hex

If you want to write your own encoder, you need to implement these two methods:

  • string adapter.encode(string)
  • string adapter.decode(string)

You have to place your adapter inside resty.session.encoders for auto-loader to work.

To configure session to use your adapter, you can do so with Nginx configuration (or in Lua code):

set $session_encoder base64;

Pluggable Session Identifier Generators

With version 2.12 we started to support pluggable session identifier generators in lua-resty-session. Right now we support only one type of generator, and that is:

  • random

If you want to write your own session identifier generator, you need to implement one function:

  • string function(config)

(the config is actually a session instance)

You have to place your generator inside resty.session.identifiers for auto-loader to work.

To configure session to use your generator, you can do so with Nginx configuration (or in Lua code):

set $session_identifier_generator random;

Random Sesssion Identifier Generator

Random generator uses lua-resty-string's (an OpenResty core library) OpenSSL based cryptographically safe random generator.

Random generator can be selected with configuration:

set $session_identifier random;

Additionally you can configure Random generator with these settings:

set $session_random_length 16;

Here follows the description of each setting:

length

session.random.length holds the length of the session.id. By default it is 16 bytes. This can be configured with Nginx set $session_random_length 16;.

Lua API

Functions and Methods

table session.new(opts or nil)

With this function you can create a new session table (i.e. the actual session instance). This allows you to generate session table first, and set invidual configuration before calling session:open() or session:start(). You can also pass in opts Lua table with the configurations.

local session = require "resty.session".new()
-- set the configuration parameters before calling start
session.cookie.domain = ".mydomain.com"
-- call start before setting session.data parameters
session:start()
session.data.uid = 1
-- save session and update the cookie to be sent to the client
session:save()

This is equivalent to this:

local session = require "resty.session".new{ cookie = { domain = ".mydomain.com" } }
session:start()
session.data.uid = 1
session:save()

As well as with this:

local session = require "resty.session".start{ cookie = { domain = ".mydomain.com" } }
session.data.uid = 1
session:save()

table, boolean session.open(opts or nil)

With this function you can open a new session. It will create a new session Lua table on each call (unless called with colon : as in examples above with session.new). Calling this function repeatedly will be a no-op when using colon :. This function will return a (new) session table as a result. If the session cookie is supplied with user's HTTP(S) client then this function validates the supplied session cookie. If validation is successful, the user supplied session data will be used (if not, a new session is generated with empty data). You may supply optional session configuration variables with opts argument, but be aware that many of these will only have effect if the session is a fresh session (i.e. not loaded from user supplied cookie). The second boolean return argument will be true if the user client send a valid cookie (meaning that session was already started on some earlier request), and false if the new session was created (either because user client didn't send a cookie or that the cookie was not a valid one). This function will not set a client cookie. You need to call session:start() to really start the session. This open function is mainly used if you only want to read data and avoid automatically sending a cookie (see also issue #12). But be aware that this doesn't update cookie expiration time stored in a cookie.

local session = require "resty.session".open()
-- Set some options (overwriting the defaults or nginx configuration variables)
local session = require "resty.session".open{ random = { length = 32 }}
-- Read some data
if session.present then
    ngx.print(session.data.uid)
end
-- Now let's really start the session
-- (session.started will be always false in this example):
if not session.started then 
    session:start()
end
session.data.greeting = "Hello, World!"
session:save()

table, boolean session.start(opts or nil)

With this function you can start a new session. It will create a new session Lua table on each call (unless called with colon : as in examples above with session.new). Right now you should only start session once per request as calling this function repeatedly will overwrite the previously started session cookie and session data. This function will return a (new) session table as a result. If the session cookie is supplied with user's HTTP(S) client then this function validates the supplied session cookie. If validation is successful, the user supplied session data will be used (if not, a new session is generated with empty data). You may supply optional session configuration variables with opts argument, but be aware that many of these will only have effect if the session is a fresh session (i.e. not loaded from user supplied cookie). This function does also manage session cookie renewing configured with $session_cookie_renew. E.g. it will send a new cookie with a new expiration time if the following is met session.expires - now < session.cookie.renew or session.expires > now + session.cookie.lifetime. The second boolean return argument will be true if the user client send a valid cookie (meaning that session was already started on some earlier request), and false if the new session was created (either because user client didn't send a cookie or that the cookie was not a valid one). On error this will return nil and error message.

local session = require "resty.session".start()
-- Set some options (overwriting the defaults or nginx configuration variables)
local session = require "resty.session".start{ random = { length = 32 }}

boolean, string session:regenerate(flush or nil)

This function regenerates a session. It will generate a new session identifier (session.id) and optionally flush the session data if flush argument evaluates true. It will automatically call session:save which means that a new expires flag is set on the cookie, and the data is encrypted with the new parameters. With client side sessions (cookie storage adapter) this overwrites the current cookie with a new one (but it doesn't invalidate the old one as there is no state held on server side - invalidation actually happens when the cookie's expiration time is not valid anymore). This function returns a boolean value if everything went as planned. If not it will return error string as a second return value.

local session = require "resty.session".start()
session:regenerate()
-- Flush the current data
session:regenerate(true)

boolean, string session:save([close = true])

This function saves the session and sends (not immediate though, as actual sending is handled by Nginx/OpenResty) a new cookie to client (with a new expiration time and encrypted data). You need to call this function whenever you want to save the changes made to session.data table. It is advised that you call this function only once per request (no need to encrypt and set cookie many times). This function returns a boolean value if everything went as planned. If not it will return error string as a second return value. Optionally you may pass false to this method, if you don't want to close the session just yet, but just to save the data.

local session = require "resty.session".start()
session.data.uid = 1
session:save()

boolean session:destroy()

This function will immediately set session data to empty table {}. It will also send a new cookie to client with empty data and Expires flag Expires=Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:01 GMT (meaning that the client should remove the cookie, and not send it back again). This function returns a boolean value if everything went as planned.

local session = require "resty.session".start()
session:destroy()

session:hide()

Sometimes, when you are using lua-resty-session in reverse proxy, you may want to hide the session cookies from the upstream server. To do that you can call session:hide().

local session = require "resty.session".start()
session:hide()

Fields

string session.id

session.id holds the current session id. By default it is 16 bytes long (raw binary bytes). It is automatically generated.

boolean session.present

session.present can be used to check if the session that was opened with session.open or session.start was really a one the was received from a client. If the session is a new one, this will be false.

boolean session.opened

session.opened can be used to check if the session:open() was called for the current session object.

boolean session.started

session.started can be used to check if the session:start() was called for the current session object.

boolean session.destroyed

session.destroyed can be used to check if the session:destroy() was called for the current session object. It will also set session.opened, session.started, and session.present to false.

string session.key

session.key holds the HMAC key. It is automatically generated. Nginx configuration like set $session_check_ssi on;, set $session_check_ua on;, set $session_check_scheme on; and set $session_check_addr on; will have effect on the generated key.

table session.data

session.data holds the data part of the session cookie. This is a Lua table. session.data is the place where you store or retrieve session variables. When you want to save the data table, you need to call session:save method.

Setting session variable:

local session = require "resty.session".start()
session.data.uid = 1
session:save()

Retrieving session variable (in other request):

local session = require "resty.session".open()
local uid = session.data.uid

number session.expires

session.expires holds the expiration time of the session (expiration time will be generated when session:save method is called).

string session.secret

session.secret holds the secret that is used in keyed HMAC generation.

boolean session.cookie.persistent

session.cookie.persistent is by default false. This means that cookies are not persisted between browser sessions (i.e. they are deleted when the browser is closed). You can enable persistent sessions if you want to by setting this to true. This can be configured with Nginx set $session_cookie_persistent on;.

number session.cookie.renew

session.cookie.renew holds the minimun seconds until the cookie expires, and renews cookie automatically (i.e. sends a new cookie with a new expiration time according to session.cookie.lifetime). This can be configured with Nginx set $session_cookie_renew 600; (600 seconds is the default value).

number session.cookie.lifetime

session.cookie.lifetime holds the cookie lifetime in seconds in the future. By default this is set to 3,600 seconds. This can be configured with Nginx set $session_cookie_lifetime 3600;. This does not set cookie's expiration time on session only (by default) cookies, but it is used if the cookies are configured persistent with session.cookie.persistent == true. See also notes about ssl_session_timeout.

string session.cookie.path

session.cookie.path holds the value of the cookie path scope. This is by default permissive /. You may want to have a more specific scope if your application resides in different path (e.g. /forums/). This can be configured with Nginx set $session_cookie_path /forums/;.

string session.cookie.domain

session.cookie.domain holds the value of the cookie domain. By default this is automatically set using Nginx variable host. This can be configured with Nginx set $session_cookie_domain openresty.org;. For localhost this is omitted.

string session.cookie.samesite

session.cookie.samesite holds the value of the cookie SameSite flag. By default we do use value of Lax. The possible values are Lax, Strict, and off. Actually, setting this parameter anything else than Lax or Strict will turn this off (but in general, you shouldn't do it). If you want better protection against Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF), set this to Strict. Default value of Lax gives you quite a good protection against CSRF, but Strict goes even further.

boolean session.cookie.secure

session.cookie.secure holds the value of the cookie Secure flag. meaning that when set the client will only send the cookie with encrypted TLS/SSL connection. By default the Secure flag is set on all the cookies where the request was made through TLS/SSL connection. This can be configured and forced with Nginx set $session_cookie_secure on;.

boolean session.cookie.httponly

session.cookie.httponly holds the value of the cookie HttpOnly flag. By default this is enabled, and I cannot think of an situation where one would want to turn this off. By keeping this on you can prevent your session cookies access from Javascript and give some safety of XSS attacks. If you really want to turn this off, this can be configured with Nginx set $session_cookie_httponly off;.

string session.cookie.delimiter

session.cookie.delimiter is used to configure how the different parts of the data stored in a cookie are delimited. By default it is a pipe character, |. It is up to storage adapter to decide if this configuration parameter is used.

number session.cookie.chunks

session.cookie.chunks should be used as a read only property to determine how many separate cookies was used for a session. Usually this is 1, but if you are using a cookie storage backend and store a lot of data in session, then the cookie is divided to n chunks where each stores data containing 4.000 bytes (the last one 4000 or less). This was implemented in version 2.15.

boolean session.check.ssi

session.check.ssi is additional check to validate that the request was made with the same SSL session as when the original cookie was delivered. This check is enabled by default on releases prior 2.12 on non-persistent sessions and disabled by default on persistent sessions and on releases 2.12 and later. Please note that on TLS with TLS Tickets enabled, this will be empty) and not used. This is discussed on issue #5 (bungle#5). You can disable TLS tickets with Nginx configuration:

ssl_session_tickets off;

boolean session.check.ua

session.check.ua is additional check to validate that the request was made with the same user-agent browser string as where the original cookie was delivered. This check is enabled by default.

boolean session.check.addr

session.check.addr is additional check to validate that the request was made from the same remote ip-address as where the original cookie was delivered. This check is disabled by default.

boolean session.check.scheme

session.check.scheme is additional check to validate that the request was made using the same protocol as the one used when the original cookie was delivered. This check is enabled by default.

number session.cipher.size (deprecated in 2.1 and removed in 2.2, use session.aes.size)

session.cipher.size holds the size of the cipher (lua-resty-string supports AES in 128, 192, and 256 bits key sizes). See aes.cipher function in lua-resty-string for more information. By default this will use 256 bits key size. This can be configured with Nginx set $session_cipher_size 256;.

string session.cipher.mode (deprecated in 2.1 and removed in 2.2, use session.aes.mode)

session.cipher.mode holds the mode of the cipher. lua-resty-string supports AES in ecb, cbc, cfb1, cfb8, cfb128, ofb, and ctr modes (ctr mode is not available with 256 bit keys). See aes.cipher function in lua-resty-string for more information. By default cbc mode is used. This can be configured with Nginx set $session_cipher_mode cbc;.

function session.cipher.hash (deprecated in 2.1 and removed in 2.2, use session.aes.hash)

session.cipher.hash is used in ecryption key, and iv derivation (see: OpenSSL EVP_BytesToKey). By default sha512 is used but md5, sha1, sha224, sha256, and sha384 are supported as well in lua-resty-string. This can be configured with Nginx set $session_cipher_hash sha512;.

number session.cipher.rounds (deprecated in 2.1 and removed in 2.2, use session.aes.rounds)

session.cipher.rounds can be used to slow-down the encryption key, and iv derivation. By default this is set to 1 (the fastest). This can be configured with Nginx set $session_cipher_rounds 1;.

Nginx Configuration Variables

You can set default configuration parameters directly from Nginx configuration. It's IMPORTANT to understand that these are read only once (not on every request), for performance reasons. This is especially important if you run multiple sites (with different configurations) on the same Nginx server. You can of course set the common parameters on Nginx configuration even on that case. But if you are really supporting multiple site with different configurations (e.g. different session.secret on each site), you should set these in code (see: session.new and session.start).

Please note that Nginx has also its own SSL/TLS caches and timeouts. Especially note ssl_session_timeout if you are running services over SSL/TLS as this will end sessions regardless of session.cookie.lifetime. Please adjust that accordingly or disable ssl_session_id check session.check.ssi = false (in code) or set $session_check_ssi off; (in Nginx configuration). As of 2.12 checking SSL session identifier check ($session_check_ssi / session.check.ssi) is disabled by default because it was not reliable (most servers use session tickets now), and it usually needed extra configuration.

You may want to add something like this to your Nginx SSL/TLS config (quite a huge cache in this example, 1 MB is about 4.000 SSL sessions):

ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:100m;
ssl_session_timeout 60m;

Also note that the ssl_session_id may be null if the TLS tickets are enabled. You can disable tickets in Nginx server with the configuration below:

ssl_session_tickets off;

Right now this is a workaround and may change in a future if we find alternative ways to have the added security that we have with ssl_session_id with TLS tickets too. While TLS tickets are great, they also have effect on (Perfect) Forward Secrecy, and it is adviced to disable tickets until the problems mentioned in The Sad State of Server-Side TLS Session Resumption Implementations article are resolved.

Here is a list of lua-resty-session related Nginx configuration variables that you can use to control lua-resty-session:

set $session_name              session;
set $session_secret            623q4hR325t36VsCD3g567922IC0073T;
set $session_storage           cookie;
set $session_cipher            aes;
set $session_encoder           base64;
set $session_serializer        json;
set $session_cookie_persistent off;
set $session_cookie_renew      600;
set $session_cookie_lifetime   3600;
set $session_cookie_path       /;
set $session_cookie_domain     openresty.org;
set $session_cookie_samesite   Lax;
set $session_cookie_secure     on;
set $session_cookie_httponly   on;
set $session_cookie_delimiter  |;
set $session_check_ssi         off;
set $session_check_ua          on;
set $session_check_scheme      on;
set $session_check_addr        off;
set $session_random_length     16;
set $session_aes_mode          cbc;
set $session_aes_size          256;
set $session_aes_hash          sha512;
set $session_aes_rounds        1;
# this is removed in 2.12, use session_random_length instead:
set $session_identifier_length 16;
# these are deprecated in 2.1 and removed in 2.2, use session_aes_* instead:
set $session_cipher_mode       cbc;
set $session_cipher_size       256;
set $session_cipher_hash       sha512;
set $session_cipher_rounds     1;

Changes

The changes of every release of this module is recorded in Changes.md file.

See Also

License

lua-resty-session uses two clause BSD license.

Copyright (c) 2014 – 2017 Aapo Talvensaari
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification,
are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

* Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this
  list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this
  list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or
  other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES

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Session library for OpenResty – flexible and secure

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