Add inactivity-based session timeout (closes #66)
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Sessions had only a 7-day absolute lifetime, and that cap was enforced
only by the cookie's MaxAge -- i.e. only by the browser. An abandoned
session stayed usable for the full week.

Sessions are now bounded by two independent, server-enforced clocks,
and end at whichever expires first:

- absolute: created_at + 7 days, stamped once by SetUser and never
  rewritten, so no amount of activity can extend it
- idle: last_seen + SESSION_IDLE_TIMEOUT (default 24h), pushed forward
  by the new Session.Touch

Both deadlines are checked in Session.expired, which IsAuthenticated
now consults, so every existing authentication decision honours them
without each call site having to remember.

Activity means a request that passes RequireAuth, which is the only
place Touch is called; an unauthenticated request carrying the cookie
cannot keep a session alive. Touch re-checks authentication itself so
that guarantee does not depend on the call site.

To avoid re-issuing the session cookie on every authenticated request,
Touch rewrites last_seen only once it is older than a tenth of the idle
window. The session therefore expires up to 10% early relative to the
user's true last request, never late.

An authenticated session carrying no timestamps (a cookie minted before
this change) is treated as expired, so the failure mode of the upgrade
is one forced re-login rather than an unbounded session.

Tests use an injected clock rather than sleeps and cover idle expiry,
refresh on activity, an actively used session still dying at the
absolute cap, refusal to refresh unauthenticated or expired sessions,
disabled idle expiry, and startup aborting on an unparseable
SESSION_IDLE_TIMEOUT.
This commit is contained in:
2026-08-09 05:59:54 +00:00
parent 4f5ecb18e5
commit b04bc2cc7b
9 changed files with 881 additions and 22 deletions

View File

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import (
"log/slog"
"maps"
"net/http"
"time"
"github.com/gorilla/sessions"
"go.uber.org/fx"
@@ -32,6 +33,18 @@ const (
// status.
AuthenticatedKey = "authenticated"
// CreatedAtKey is the session key holding the Unix timestamp at
// which the session was authenticated. It anchors the ABSOLUTE
// expiry clock and is written exactly once, by SetUser. Nothing
// refreshes it: an absolute deadline that moved with activity
// would not be a cap at all.
CreatedAtKey = "created_at"
// LastSeenKey is the session key holding the Unix timestamp of
// the most recent authenticated request. It anchors the IDLE
// expiry clock and is pushed forward by Touch.
LastSeenKey = "last_seen"
// sessionKeyLength is the required length in bytes for the
// session authentication key.
sessionKeyLength = 32
@@ -41,6 +54,19 @@ const (
// secondsPerDay is the number of seconds in a day.
secondsPerDay = 86400
// sessionAbsoluteMaxAge is the hard upper bound on how long a
// session may live, measured from CreatedAtKey. Activity never
// extends it, so even a continuously used session ends here and
// the user has to authenticate again.
sessionAbsoluteMaxAge = sessionMaxAgeDays * secondsPerDay * time.Second
// idleRefreshDivisor rate-limits idle-deadline refreshes. Touch
// only rewrites LastSeenKey once the stored value is older than
// idleTimeout/idleRefreshDivisor, so an active session is
// re-saved at most this many times per idle window instead of
// once per request. See Touch for the tradeoff this buys.
idleRefreshDivisor = 10
)
// ErrSessionKeyLength is returned when the decoded session key
@@ -62,6 +88,16 @@ type Session struct {
key []byte // raw 32-byte auth key, also used for CSRF cookie signing
log *slog.Logger
config *config.Config
// idleTimeout is the sliding inactivity window. A session that
// sees no authenticated request within this window expires,
// independently of the absolute cap. Non-positive disables idle
// expiry and leaves sessionAbsoluteMaxAge as the only bound.
idleTimeout time.Duration
// now reads the current time. Injected so expiry can be tested
// without sleeping.
now func() time.Time
}
// New creates a new session manager. The cookie store is
@@ -73,8 +109,10 @@ func New(
params Params,
) (*Session, error) {
s := &Session{
log: params.Logger.Get(),
config: params.Config,
log: params.Logger.Get(),
config: params.Config,
idleTimeout: params.Config.SessionIdleTimeout,
now: time.Now,
}
lc.Append(fx.Hook{
@@ -149,29 +187,98 @@ func (s *Session) Save(
return sess.Save(r, w)
}
// SetUser sets the user information in the session.
// SetUser sets the user information in the session. It starts both
// expiry clocks: CreatedAtKey (absolute, never refreshed again) and
// LastSeenKey (idle, refreshed by Touch).
func (s *Session) SetUser(
sess *sessions.Session,
userID, username string,
) {
now := s.now().Unix()
sess.Values[UserIDKey] = userID
sess.Values[UsernameKey] = username
sess.Values[AuthenticatedKey] = true
sess.Values[CreatedAtKey] = now
sess.Values[LastSeenKey] = now
}
// ClearUser removes user information from the session.
// ClearUser removes user information from the session, including
// both expiry timestamps.
func (s *Session) ClearUser(sess *sessions.Session) {
delete(sess.Values, UserIDKey)
delete(sess.Values, UsernameKey)
delete(sess.Values, AuthenticatedKey)
delete(sess.Values, CreatedAtKey)
delete(sess.Values, LastSeenKey)
}
// IsAuthenticated checks if the session has an authenticated
// user.
// sessionTime reads a Unix-second timestamp stored under key.
func sessionTime(
sess *sessions.Session,
key string,
) (time.Time, bool) {
secs, ok := sess.Values[key].(int64)
if !ok {
return time.Time{}, false
}
return time.Unix(secs, 0), true
}
// IsAuthenticated checks if the session has an authenticated user
// whose session has not passed either expiry deadline. Every
// authentication decision goes through here, so neither clock can
// be bypassed by a caller that forgets to check it.
func (s *Session) IsAuthenticated(sess *sessions.Session) bool {
auth, ok := sess.Values[AuthenticatedKey].(bool)
if !ok || !auth {
return false
}
return ok && auth
return !s.expired(sess)
}
// Touch records authenticated activity by pushing the IDLE deadline
// forward. It writes LastSeenKey only; CreatedAtKey is left alone so
// the absolute cap keeps counting down even for a user who never
// stops clicking.
//
// Callers must only invoke Touch for a request that authenticated
// with this session. Refreshing on an unauthenticated request would
// let anyone holding a stolen or abandoned cookie keep the session
// alive by polling a public endpoint. Touch enforces that itself by
// returning false for any session that is not currently
// authenticated and unexpired.
//
// To avoid re-encrypting and re-emitting the session cookie on every
// single request, the timestamp is advanced only once it is older
// than idleTimeout/idleRefreshDivisor. The tradeoff is that
// LastSeenKey lags real activity by up to that much, so a session
// can expire slightly early relative to the user's true last
// request -- never late.
//
// Touch reports whether it changed the session; only then does the
// caller need to save it.
func (s *Session) Touch(sess *sessions.Session) bool {
if s.idleTimeout <= 0 {
return false
}
if !s.IsAuthenticated(sess) {
return false
}
now := s.now()
lastSeen, ok := sessionTime(sess, LastSeenKey)
if ok && now.Sub(lastSeen) < s.idleTimeout/idleRefreshDivisor {
return false
}
sess.Values[LastSeenKey] = now.Unix()
return true
}
// GetUserID retrieves the user ID from the session.
@@ -253,3 +360,41 @@ func (s *Session) Regenerate(
return newSess, nil
}
// expired reports whether the session has passed either of its two
// independent deadlines. They are deliberately kept apart:
//
// - the ABSOLUTE deadline is CreatedAtKey + sessionAbsoluteMaxAge.
// It is fixed at login and no amount of activity moves it.
// - the IDLE deadline is LastSeenKey + idleTimeout. Activity moves
// it forward via Touch.
//
// Whichever comes first ends the session.
//
// A session that claims to be authenticated but carries no
// timestamps predates this check; it is treated as expired so the
// user re-authenticates rather than being granted an unbounded
// session.
func (s *Session) expired(sess *sessions.Session) bool {
now := s.now()
createdAt, ok := sessionTime(sess, CreatedAtKey)
if !ok {
return true
}
if !now.Before(createdAt.Add(sessionAbsoluteMaxAge)) {
return true
}
if s.idleTimeout <= 0 {
return false
}
lastSeen, ok := sessionTime(sess, LastSeenKey)
if !ok {
return true
}
return !now.Before(lastSeen.Add(s.idleTimeout))
}