Session Fixation Protection

Session fixation protection in Spring Security is a security mechanism designed to prevent session fixation attacks. A session fixation attack occurs when an attacker sets a user's session ID to a known value, typically obtained through phishing or other means. After the user logs in, the attacker can use the known session ID to hijack the user's session.

Spring Security provides built-in support for session fixation protection. The sessionFixation() method in the sessionManagement() configuration allows you to configure how the framework handles session fixation.

Here's an example of configuring session fixation protection in Spring Security:

                
    @EnableWebSecurity
    public class SecurityConfig extends WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter {

        @Override
        protected void configure(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
            http
                // ... other configurations

                .sessionManagement()
                    .sessionCreationPolicy(SessionCreationPolicy.IF_REQUIRED)
                    .sessionFixation().migrateSession();
        }

        // ... other configurations, userDetailsService, etc.
    }
In this example:
  • sessionCreationPolicy(SessionCreationPolicy.IF_REQUIRED): Specifies that a session should be created only if required. This is the default behavior in Spring Security.
  • .sessionFixation().migrateSession(): Configures the session fixation protection. When a user logs in, Spring Security invalidates the existing session and creates a new one. This helps to prevent session fixation attacks.

You can choose other options for session fixation protection based on your requirements:

  • none(): No session fixation protection is applied.
    •                     
        .sessionFixation().none()
  • newSession(): A new session is created, but the existing session is not invalidated.
    •                     
        .sessionFixation().newSession()
  • changeSessionId(): The existing session ID is changed without creating a new session.
    •                     
        .sessionFixation().changeSessionId()

Choose the appropriate strategy based on your security requirements. For most cases, migrating the session as shown in the example is a good practice to mitigate session fixation attacks.

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