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CXLI. Session Handling Functions
Session support in PHP consists of a way to preserve certain data
across subsequent accesses. This enables you to build more
customized applications and increase the appeal of your web site.
A visitor accessing your web site is assigned a unique id, the
so-called session id. This is either stored in a cookie on the
user side or is propagated in the URL.
The session support allows you to register arbitrary numbers of
variables to be preserved across requests. When a visitor accesses
your site, PHP will check automatically (if session.auto_start
is set to 1) or on your request (explicitly through
session_start() or implicitly through
session_register()) whether a specific session
id has been sent with the request. If this is the case, the prior
saved environment is recreated.
| Caution |
If you do turn on
session.auto_start then you cannot put objects into
your sessions since the class definition has to be
loaded before starting the session in order to recreate the
objects in your session.
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All registered variables are serialized after the request
finishes. Registered variables which are undefined are marked as
being not defined. On subsequent accesses, these are not defined
by the session module unless the user defines them later.
| Warning |
Some types of data can not be serialized thus stored in sessions. It
includes resource variables or objects with circular
references (i.e. objects which passes a reference to itself to another
object).
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Note:
Session handling was added in PHP 4.0.
Note:
Please note when working with sessions that a record of a session
is not created until a variable has been registered using the
session_register() function or by adding a new
key to the $_SESSION superglobal array. This
holds true regardless of if a session has been started using the
session_start() function.
External links: Session fixation
The session module cannot guarantee that the information you store
in a session is only viewed by the user who created the session. You need
to take additional measures to actively protect the integrity of the
session, depending on the value associated with it.
Assess the importance of the data carried by your sessions and deploy
additional protections -- this usually comes at a price, reduced
convenience for the user. For example, if you want to protect users from
simple social engineering tactics, you need to enable
session.use_only_cookies. In that case,
cookies must be enabled unconditionally on the user side, or
sessions will not work.
There are several ways to leak an existing session id to third parties.
A leaked session id enables the third party to access all resources which
are associated with a specific id. First, URLs carrying session ids. If
you link to an external site, the URL including the session id might be
stored in the external site's referrer logs. Second, a more active
attacker might listen to your network traffic. If it is not encrypted,
session ids will flow in plain text over the network. The solution here
is to implement SSL on your server and make it mandatory for users.
No external libraries are needed to build this extension. Note:
Optionally you can use shared memory allocation (mm), developed by
Ralf S. Engelschall, for session storage. You have to download
mm and install it. This option is not
available for Windows platforms. Note that the session storage module
for mm does not guarantee that concurrent accesses to the same session
are properly locked. It might be more appropriate to use a shared memory
based filesystem (such as tmpfs on Solaris/Linux, or /dev/md on BSD) to
store sessions in files, because they are properly locked.
Session data is stored in memory thus web server restart deletes it.
Session support is enabled in PHP by default. If you would
not like to build your PHP with session support, you should
specify the --disable-session
option to configure. To use shared memory allocation (mm) for session
storage configure PHP --with-mm[=DIR] .
The windows version of PHP has built in
support for this extension. You do not need to load any additional
extension in order to use these functions. Note:
By default, all data related to a particular session will be stored in
a file in the directory specified by the session.save_path INI option.
A file for each session (regardless of if any data is associated with
that session) will be created. This is due to the fact that a session
is opened (a file is created) but no data is even written to that file.
Note that this behavior is a side-effect of the limitations of working
with the file system and it is possible that a custom session handler
(such as one which uses a database) does not keep track of sessions
which store no data.
The behaviour of these functions is affected by settings in php.ini.
Table 1. Session configuration options | Name | Default | Changeable | Changelog |
|---|
| session.save_path | "" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.name | "PHPSESSID" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.save_handler | "files" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.auto_start | "0" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.gc_probability | "1" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.gc_divisor | "100" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.3.2. | | session.gc_maxlifetime | "1440" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.serialize_handler | "php" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.cookie_lifetime | "0" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.cookie_path | "/" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.cookie_domain | "" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.cookie_secure | "" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.0.4. | | session.cookie_httponly | "" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 5.2.0. | | session.use_cookies | "1" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.use_only_cookies | "1" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.3.0. | | session.referer_check | "" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.entropy_file | "" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.entropy_length | "0" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.cache_limiter | "nocache" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.cache_expire | "180" | PHP_INI_ALL | | | session.use_trans_sid | "0" | PHP_INI_ALL | PHP_INI_ALL in PHP <= 4.2.3. PHP_INI_PERDIR in PHP < 5. Available since PHP 4.0.3. | | session.bug_compat_42 | "1" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.3.0. | | session.bug_compat_warn | "1" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.3.0. | | session.hash_function | "0" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 5.0.0. | | session.hash_bits_per_character | "4" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 5.0.0. | | url_rewriter.tags | "a=href,area=href,frame=src,form=,fieldset=" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.0.4. |
For further details and definitions of the
PHP_INI_* constants, see the Appendix G.
The session management system supports a number of configuration
options which you can place in your php.ini file. We will give a
short overview.
- session.save_handler
string
session.save_handler defines the name of the
handler which is used for storing and retrieving data
associated with a session. Defaults to
files. See also
session_set_save_handler().
- session.save_path
string
session.save_path defines the argument which
is passed to the save handler. If you choose the default files
handler, this is the path where the files are created. Defaults to
/tmp. See also
session_save_path().
There is an optional N argument to this directive that determines
the number of directory levels your session files will be spread
around in. For example, setting to '5;/tmp'
may end up creating a session file and location like
/tmp/4/b/1/e/3/sess_4b1e384ad74619bd212e236e52a5a174If
. In order to use N you must create all of these
directories before use. A small shell script exists in
ext/session to do this, it's called
mod_files.sh. Also note that if N is
used and greater than 0 then automatic garbage collection will
not be performed, see a copy of php.ini for further
information. Also, if you use N, be sure to surround
session.save_path in
"quotes" because the separator (;) is
also used for comments in php.ini.
| Warning |
If you leave this set to a world-readable directory, such as
/tmp (the default), other users on the
server may be able to hijack sessions by getting the list of
files in that directory.
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Note:
Prior to PHP 4.3.6, Windows users had to change this variable in order
to use PHP's session functions. A valid path must be specified, e.g.:
c:/temp.
- session.name
string
session.name specifies the name of the
session which is used as cookie name. It should only contain
alphanumeric characters. Defaults to PHPSESSID.
See also session_name().
- session.auto_start
boolean
session.auto_start specifies whether the
session module starts a session automatically on request
startup. Defaults to 0 (disabled).
- session.serialize_handler
string
session.serialize_handler defines the name
of the handler which is used to serialize/deserialize
data. Currently, a PHP internal format (name
php) and WDDX are supported (name
wddx). WDDX is only available, if PHP is
compiled with WDDX
support. Defaults to php.
- session.gc_probability
integer
session.gc_probability in conjunction with
session.gc_divisor is used to manage probability
that the gc (garbage collection) routine is started.
Defaults to 1. See session.gc_divisor for details.
- session.gc_divisor
integer
session.gc_divisor coupled with
session.gc_probability defines the probability
that the gc (garbage collection) process is started on every session
initialization.
The probability is calculated by using gc_probability/gc_divisor,
e.g. 1/100 means there is a 1% chance that the GC process starts
on each request.
session.gc_divisor defaults to 100.
- session.gc_maxlifetime
integer
session.gc_maxlifetime specifies the number
of seconds after which data will be seen as 'garbage' and
cleaned up. Garbage collection occurs during session start.
Note:
If different scripts have different values of
session.gc_maxlifetime but share the same place for
storing the session data then the script with the minimum value will be
cleaning the data. In this case, use this directive together with session.save_path.
Note: If you are using the default file-based session handler, your
filesystem must keep track of access times (atime). Windows FAT does
not so you will have to come up with another way to handle garbage
collecting your session if you are stuck with a FAT filesystem or any
other filesystem where atime tracking is not available.
Since PHP 4.2.3 it has used mtime (modified date) instead of atime. So, you
won't have problems with filesystems where atime tracking is not available.
- session.referer_check
string
session.referer_check contains the
substring you want to check each HTTP Referer for. If the
Referer was sent by the client and the substring was not
found, the embedded session id will be marked as invalid.
Defaults to the empty string.
- session.entropy_file
string
session.entropy_file gives a path to an
external resource (file) which will be used as an additional
entropy source in the session id creation process. Examples are
/dev/random or /dev/urandom
which are available on many Unix systems.
- session.entropy_length
integer
session.entropy_length specifies the number
of bytes which will be read from the file specified
above. Defaults to 0 (disabled).
- session.use_cookies
boolean
session.use_cookies specifies whether the
module will use cookies to store the session id on the client
side. Defaults to 1 (enabled).
- session.use_only_cookies
boolean
session.use_only_cookies specifies whether
the module will only use
cookies to store the session id on the client side.
Enabling this setting prevents attacks involved passing session
ids in URLs. This setting was added in PHP 4.3.0.
- session.cookie_lifetime
integer
session.cookie_lifetime specifies the lifetime of
the cookie in seconds which is sent to the browser. The value 0
means "until the browser is closed." Defaults to
0. See also
session_get_cookie_params() and
session_set_cookie_params().
Since the cookie is returned by the browser, it is not prolonged to
suffice the lifetime. It must be sent manually by
setcookie().
- session.cookie_path
string
session.cookie_path specifies path to set
in session_cookie. Defaults to /. See also
session_get_cookie_params() and
session_set_cookie_params().
- session.cookie_domain
string
session.cookie_domain specifies the domain to
set in session_cookie. Default is none at all meaning the host name of
the server which generated the cookie according to cookies specification.
See also session_get_cookie_params() and
session_set_cookie_params().
- session.cookie_secure
boolean
session.cookie_secure specifies whether
cookies should only be sent over secure connections. Defaults to
off.
This setting was added in PHP 4.0.4. See also
session_get_cookie_params() and
session_set_cookie_params().
- session.cookie_httponly
boolean
Marks the cookie as accessible only through the HTTP protocol. This means
that the cookie won't be accessible by scripting languages, such as
JavaScript. This setting can effectively help to reduce identity theft
through XSS attacks (although it is not supported by all browsers).
- session.cache_limiter
string
session.cache_limiter specifies cache
control method to use for session pages
(none/nocache/private/private_no_expire/public). Defaults to
nocache. See also
session_cache_limiter().
- session.cache_expire
integer
session.cache_expire specifies time-to-live
for cached session pages in minutes, this has no effect for
nocache limiter. Defaults to 180. See also
session_cache_expire().
- session.use_trans_sid
boolean
session.use_trans_sid whether transparent
sid support is enabled or not. Defaults to
0 (disabled).
Note:
For PHP 4.1.2 or less, it is enabled by compiling with
--enable-trans-sid.
From PHP 4.2.0, trans-sid feature is always compiled.
URL based session management has additional security risks
compared to cookie based session management. Users may send
a URL that contains an active session ID to their friends by
email or users may save a URL that contains a session ID to
their bookmarks and access your site with the same session ID
always, for example.
- session.bug_compat_42
boolean
PHP versions 4.2.3 and lower have an undocumented feature/bug that
allows you to initialize a session variable in the global scope,
albeit register_globals
is disabled. PHP 4.3.0 and later will warn you, if this feature is
used, and if
session.bug_compat_warn is also enabled. This feature/bug can be
disabled by disabling this directive.
- session.bug_compat_warn
boolean
PHP versions 4.2.3 and lower have an undocumented feature/bug that
allows you to initialize a session variable in the global scope,
albeit register_globals
is disabled. PHP 4.3.0 and later will warn you, if this feature is
used by enabling both
session.bug_compat_42
and
session.bug_compat_warn.
- session.hash_function
integer
session.hash_function allows you to specify the hash
algorithm used to generate the session IDs. '0' means MD5 (128 bits) and
'1' means SHA-1 (160 bits).
Note:
This was introduced in PHP 5.
- session.hash_bits_per_character
integer
session.hash_bits_per_character allows you to define
how many bits are stored in each character when converting the binary
hash data to something readable. The possible values are '4' (0-9, a-f),
'5' (0-9, a-v), and '6' (0-9, a-z, A-Z, "-", ",").
Note:
This was introduced in PHP 5.
- url_rewriter.tags
string
url_rewriter.tags specifies which HTML tags
are rewritten to include session id if transparent sid support
is enabled. Defaults to
a=href,area=href,frame=src,input=src,form=fakeentry,fieldset=
Note:
If you want XHTML conformity, remove the form entry and
use the <fieldset> tags around your form fields.
The track_vars and
register_globals
configuration settings influence how the session variables get
stored and restored.
Note:
As of PHP 4.0.3, track_vars is
always turned on.
This extension has no resource types defined.
The constants below are defined by this extension, and
will only be available when the extension has either
been compiled into PHP or dynamically loaded at runtime.
- SID
(string)
Constant containing either the session name and session ID in
the form of "name=ID" or empty string
if session ID was set in an appropriate session cookie.
Note:
As of PHP 4.1.0, $_SESSION is available as a
global variable just like $_POST,
$_GET, $_REQUEST and so on.
Unlike $HTTP_SESSION_VARS,
$_SESSION is always global. Therefore, you do not
need to use the global
keyword for $_SESSION. Please note that this
documentation has been changed to use
$_SESSION everywhere. You can substitute
$HTTP_SESSION_VARS for
$_SESSION, if you prefer the former. Also note
that you must start your session using session_start()
before use of $_SESSION becomes available.
The keys in the $_SESSION associative
array are subject to the
same limitations as regular variable names in PHP, i.e. they cannot
start with a number and must start with a letter or underscore.
For more details see the section on
variables in this manual.
If register_globals
is disabled, only members of the global associative array
$_SESSION can be registered as session
variables. The restored session variables will only be available
in the array $_SESSION.
Use of $_SESSION (or
$HTTP_SESSION_VARS with PHP 4.0.6 or less) is
recommended for improved security and code readability. With
$_SESSION, there is no need to use the
session_register(),
session_unregister(),
session_is_registered() functions. Session variables
are accessible like any other variables.
Example 1.
Registering a variable with $_SESSION.
<?php
session_start();
// Use $HTTP_SESSION_VARS with PHP 4.0.6 or less
if (!isset($_SESSION['count'])) {
$_SESSION['count'] = 0;
} else {
$_SESSION['count']++;
}
?> |
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Example 2.
Unregistering a variable with $_SESSION and
register_globals disabled.
<?php
session_start();
// Use $HTTP_SESSION_VARS with PHP 4.0.6 or less
unset($_SESSION['count']);
?> |
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| Caution |
Do NOT unset the whole $_SESSION with
unset($_SESSION) as this will disable the
registering of session variables through the
$_SESSION superglobal.
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| Warning |
You can't use references in session variables as there is no feasible way
to restore a reference to another variable.
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If register_globals
is enabled, then each global variable can be registered as session
variable. Upon a restart of a session, these variables will be restored
to corresponding global variables. Since PHP must know which global
variables are registered as session variables, users need to register
variables with session_register() function.
You can avoid this by simply setting entries in
$_SESSION.
If register_globals
is enabled, then the global variables and the
$_SESSION entries will automatically reference the
same values which were registered in the prior session instance.
However, if the variable is registered by $_SESSION
then the global variable is available since the next request.
There is a defect in PHP 4.2.3 and earlier. If you register a new
session variable by using session_register(), the
entry in the global scope and the $_SESSION entry will
not reference the same value until the next
session_start(). I.e. a modification to the newly
registered global variable will not be reflected by the
$_SESSION entry. This has been corrected in PHP 4.3.
There are two methods to propagate a session id:
The session module supports both methods. Cookies are optimal, but
because they are not always available, we also provide an alternative
way. The second method embeds the session id directly into URLs.
PHP is capable of transforming links transparently. Unless you are using
PHP 4.2 or later, you need to enable it manually when building PHP.
Under Unix, pass
--enable-trans-sid to configure. If this build
option and the run-time option
session.use_trans_sid are enabled, relative
URIs will be changed to contain the session id automatically.
Note:
The arg_separator.output
php.ini directive allows to customize the argument seperator. For full
XHTML conformance, specify & there.
Alternatively, you can use the constant SID which is
defined if the session started. If the client did not send an appropriate session
cookie, it has the form session_name=session_id.
Otherwise, it expands to an empty string. Thus, you can embed it
unconditionally into URLs.
The following example demonstrates how to register a variable, and
how to link correctly to another page using SID.
Example 3. Counting the number of hits of a single user <?php
if (!session_is_registered('count')) {
session_register('count');
$count = 1;
} else {
$count++;
}
?>
<p>
Hello visitor, you have seen this page <?php echo $count; ?> times.
</p>
<p>
To continue, <a href="nextpage.php?<?php echo strip_tags(SID); ?>">click
here</a>.
</p> |
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The strip_tags() is used when printing the SID
in order to prevent XSS related attacks.
Printing the SID, like shown above, is not necessary if
--enable-trans-sid was used to compile PHP.
Note:
Non-relative URLs are assumed to point to external sites and
hence don't append the SID, as it would be a security risk to
leak the SID to a different server.
To implement database storage, or any other storage method, you
will need to use session_set_save_handler() to
create a set of user-level storage functions.
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session_pgsql_status
