spring-security/docs/manual/src/docbook/session-mgmt.xml

<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:id="session-mgmt"
    xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
    <info>
        <title>Session Management</title>
    </info>
    <para>HTTP session related functonality is handled by a combination of the
        <classname>SessionManagementFilter</classname> and the
        <interfacename>SessionAuthenticationStrategy</interfacename> interface, which the filter
        delegates to. Typical usage includes session-fixation protection attack prevention,
        detection of session timeouts and restrictions on how many sessions an authenticated user
        may have open concurrently.</para>
    <section>
        <title>SessionManagementFilter</title>
        <para>The <classname>SessionManagementFilter</classname> checks the contents of the
            <interfacename>SecurityContextRepository</interfacename> against the current contents of
            the <classname>SecurityContextHolder</classname> to determine whether a user has been
            authenticated during the current request, typically by a non-interactive authentication
            mechanism, such as pre-authentication or remember-me <footnote>
            <para>Authentication by mechanisms which perform a redirect after authenticating (such
                as form-login) will not be detected by
                <classname>SessionManagementFilter</classname>, as the filter will not be invoked
                during the authenticating request. Session-management functionality has to be
                handled separately in these cases. </para>
            </footnote>. If the repository contains a security context, the filter does nothing. If
            it doesn't, and the thread-local <interfacename>SecurityContext</interfacename> contains
            a (non-anonymous) <interfacename>Authentication</interfacename> object, the filter
            assumes they have been authenticated by a previous filter in the stack. It will then
            invoke the configured
            <interfacename>SessionAuthenticationStrategy</interfacename>.</para>
        <para>If the user is not currently authenticated, the filter will check whether an invalid
            session ID has been requested (because of a timeout, for example) and will redirect to
            the configured <literal>invalidSessionUrl</literal> if set. The easiest way to configure
            this is through the namespace, <link xlink:href="#ns-session-mgmt">as described
            earlier</link>.</para>
    </section>
    <section>
        <title><interfacename>SessionAuthenticationStrategy</interfacename></title>
        <para> <interfacename>SessionAuthenticationStrategy</interfacename> is used by both
            <classname>SessionManagementFilter</classname> and
            <classname>AbstractAuthenticationProcessingFilter</classname>, so if you are using a
            customized form-login class, for example, you will need to inject it into both of these.
            In this case, a typical configuration, combining the namespace and custom beans might
            look like this:<programlisting><![CDATA[
<http>
  <custom-filter position="FORM_LOGIN_FILTER" ref="myAuthFilter" />
  <session-management session-authentication-strategy-ref="sas"/>
</http>

<beans:bean id="myAuthFilter" class=
  "org.springframework.security.web.authentication.UsernamePasswordAuthenticationFilter">
    <beans:property name="sessionAuthenticationStrategy" ref="sas" />
    ...
</beans:bean>

<beans:bean id="sas" class=
  "org.springframework.security.web.authentication.session.SessionFixationProtectionStrategy">
    <beans:property name="sessionRegistry" ref="sessionRegistry" />
    <beans:property name="maximumSessions" value="1" />
</beans:bean>
]]></programlisting>
            Note that the use of the default, <classname>SessionFixationProtectionStrategy</classname>
            may cause issues if you are storing beans in the session which implement
            <interfacename>HttpSessionBindingListener</interfacename>, including Spring session-scoped
            beans. See the Javadoc for this class for more information.
        </para>
    </section>
    <section xml:id="concurrent-sessions">
        <title>Concurrency Control</title>
        <para>Spring Security is able to prevent a principal from concurrently authenticating to the
            same application more than a specified number of times. Many ISVs take advantage of this
            to enforce licensing, whilst network administrators like this feature because it helps
            prevent people from sharing login names. You can, for example, stop user
            <quote>Batman</quote> from logging onto the web application from two different sessions.
            You can either expire their previous login or you can report an error when they try to
            log in again, preventing the second login. Note that if you are using the second
            approach, a user who has not explicitly logged out (but who has just closed their
            browser, for example) will not be able to log in again until their original session
            expires.</para>
        <para>Concurrency control is supported by the namespace, so please check the earlier
            namespace chapter for the simplest configuration. Sometimes you need to customize things
            though. </para>
        <para>The implementation uses a specialized version of
            <interfacename>SessionAuthenticationStrategy</interfacename>, called
            <classname>ConcurrentSessionControlStrategy</classname>. <note>
            <para>Previously the concurrent authentication check was made by the
                <classname>ProviderManager</classname>, which could be injected with a
                <literal>ConcurrentSessionController</literal>. The latter would check if the user
                was attempting to exceed the number of permitted sessions. However, this approach
                required that an HTTP session be created in advance, which is undesirable. In Spring
                Security 3, the user is first authenticated by the
                <interfacename>AuthenticationManager</interfacename> and once they are successfully
                authenticated, a session is created and the check is made whether they are allowed
                to have another session open.</para>
            </note></para>
        <para>To use concurrent session support, you'll need to add the following to
            <literal>web.xml</literal>: <programlisting><![CDATA[
  <listener>
    <listener-class>
      org.springframework.security.web.session.HttpSessionEventPublisher
    </listener-class>
  </listener> ]]>
        </programlisting></para>
        <para>In addition, you will need to add the <literal>ConcurrentSessionFilter</literal> to
            your <classname>FilterChainProxy</classname>. The
            <classname>ConcurrentSessionFilter</classname> requires two properties,
            <literal>sessionRegistry</literal>, which generally points to an instance of
            <classname>SessionRegistryImpl</classname>, and <literal>expiredUrl</literal>, which
            points to the page to display when a session has expired. A configuration using the
            namespace to create the <classname>FilterChainProxy</classname> and other default beans
            might look like this: <programlisting><![CDATA[
<http>
  <custom-filter position="CONCURRENT_SESSION_FILTER" ref="concurrencyFilter" />
  <custom-filter position="FORM_LOGIN_FILTER" ref="myAuthFilter" />

  <session-management session-authentication-strategy-ref="sas"/>
</http>

<beans:bean id="concurrencyFilter"
   class="org.springframework.security.web.session.ConcurrentSessionFilter">
  <beans:property name="sessionRegistry" ref="sessionRegistry" />
  <beans:property name="expiredUrl" value="/session-expired.htm" />
</beans:bean>

<beans:bean id="myAuthFilter" class=
   "org.springframework.security.web.authentication.UsernamePasswordAuthenticationFilter">
  <beans:property name="sessionAuthenticationStrategy" ref="sas" />
  <beans:property name="authenticationManager" ref="authenticationManager" />
</beans:bean>

<beans:bean id="sas" class=
 "org.springframework.security.web.authentication.session.ConcurrentSessionControlStrategy">
  <beans:constructor-arg name="sessionRegistry" ref="sessionRegistry" />
  <beans:property name="maximumSessions" value="1" />
</beans:bean>

<beans:bean id="sessionRegistry"
    class="org.springframework.security.core.session.SessionRegistryImpl" />
]]>
    </programlisting></para>
        <para>Adding the listener to <filename>web.xml</filename> causes an
            <literal>ApplicationEvent</literal> to be published to the Spring
            <literal>ApplicationContext</literal> every time a <literal>HttpSession</literal>
            commences or terminates. This is critical, as it allows the
            <classname>SessionRegistryImpl</classname> to be notified when a session ends. Without
            it, a user will never be able to log back in again once they have exceeded their session
            allowance, even if they log out of another session or it times out.</para>
        <section xml:id="list-authenticated-principals">
            <title>Querying the <interfacename>SessionRegistry</interfacename> for currently authenticated
            users and their sessions</title>
            <para>
                Setting up concurrency-control, either through the namespace or using plain beans has the
                useful side effect of providing you with a reference to the <interfacename>SessionRegistry</interfacename>
                which you can use directly within your application, so even if you don't want to restrict the
                number of sessions a user may have, it may be worth setting up the infrastructure anyway. You can
                set the <literal>maximumSession</literal> property to -1 to allow unlimited sessions. If
                 you're using the namespace, you can set an alias for the internally-created 
                <interfacename>SessionRegistry</interfacename> using the <literal>session-registry-alias</literal>
                attribute, providing a reference which you can inject into your own beans.</para>
            <para>
                The <methodname>getAllPrincipals()</methodname>
                method supplies you with a list of the currently authenticated users. You can list a user's
                sessions by calling the <methodname>getAllSessions(Object principal, boolean includeExpiredSessions)</methodname> method,
                which returns a list of <classname>SessionInformation</classname> objects. You can also
                expire a user's session by calling <methodname>expireNow()</methodname> on a
                <methodname>SessionInformation</methodname> instance. When the user returns to the application, they
                will be prevented from proceeding. You may find these methods useful in an administration
                application, for example. Have a look at the Javadoc for more information.
            </para>
        </section>
    </section>
</chapter>