Insecure session expiration time - Go

Need

Enforce secure session expiration time

Context

1. Usage of Go 1.16 for building efficient and scalable applications
2. Usage of Gin for building web applications in Go
3. Usage of sessions package from github.com/gin-contrib for managing user sessions in a Gin web framework application
4. Usage of cookie-based sessions with the GitHub.com/gin-contrib/sessions/cookie package

Description

Insecure Code Example

package main

import (
    "github.com/gin-gonic/gin"
    "github.com/gin-contrib/sessions"
    "github.com/gin-contrib/sessions/cookie"
)

func main() {
    router := gin.Default()

    store := cookie.NewStore([]byte("secret"))
    router.Use(sessions.Sessions("mysession", store))

    router.GET("/home", func(c *gin.Context) {
        session := sessions.Default(c)
        user := session.Get("user")
        if user == nil {
            c.JSON(401, gin.H{"error": "Unauthorized"})
            return
        }
        c.JSON(200, gin.H{"welcome": user})
    })

    router.Run(":8080")
}

In the above code, we are using Gin framework for our Go backend application. We are also using `gin-contrib/sessions` for session management. The session store is created with `cookie.NewStore([]byte("secret"))` and is used in the router with `router.Use(sessions.Sessions("mysession", store))`. In the `/home` route, we are getting the session and the user from the session. If the user is not in the session, we return a 401 Unauthorized error. If the user is in the session, we return a welcome message. The vulnerability in this code is that the user sessions do not expire after 5 minutes of inactivity. This means that if a user logs in and then leaves their computer without logging out, anyone can use their session to access the `/home` route. This is a security risk because it allows unauthorized access to user data.

Steps

1. Set a proper session expiration time for user sessions.
2. Implement a mechanism to track user activity and update the session expiration time accordingly.
3. Use a secure session store to store session data.
4. Encrypt the session data to prevent tampering.
5. Implement proper authentication and authorization mechanisms to ensure only authenticated users can access sensitive routes.
6. Regularly review and update the application's security measures to address any new vulnerabilities.

Secure Code Example

package main

import (
    "github.com/gin-gonic/gin"
    "github.com/gin-contrib/sessions"
    "github.com/gin-contrib/sessions/cookie"
    "time"
)

func main() {
    router := gin.Default()

    store := cookie.NewStore([]byte("secret"))
    store.Options(sessions.Options{MaxAge: int(5 * time.Minute / time.Second)}) // Set session expiration time to 5 minutes
    router.Use(sessions.Sessions("mysession", store))

    router.GET("/home", func(c *gin.Context) {
        session := sessions.Default(c)
        user := session.Get("user")
        if user == nil {
            c.JSON(401, gin.H{"error": "Unauthorized"})
            return
        }
        c.JSON(200, gin.H{"welcome": user})
    })

    router.Run(":8080")
}

The updated code now includes a session expiration time of 5 minutes. This is achieved by setting the `MaxAge` option of the session store to 5 minutes. The `MaxAge` option is set in seconds, so we convert 5 minutes to seconds using `time.Minute / time.Second`. This ensures that user sessions will automatically expire after 5 minutes of inactivity, enhancing the security of the application by reducing the window of opportunity for unauthorized access. Please note that this is a basic implementation and might need to be adjusted based on your specific requirements. For example, you might want to implement a mechanism to extend the session if the user is actively interacting with the application. Also, remember to replace `"secret"` with a strong, unique key to ensure the security of your session data.

References

Last updated

2023/09/18