How frontend sessions work

Sessions track user interactions with a resource within a given time frame.

A "frontend" IDP session is created by Mosaic when a user logs into the app using redirect-based athentication method or with a hosted login.

Such IDP session is bound to a specific user. Mosaic creates a client-side cookie that is used to track the IDP session. The IDP session is active until it expires, unless terminated before (see Session lifetime).

Typically, both the application session and IDP session are used to determine if the user is authenticated whenever access is requested. Once the application session is over, authentication is always required. Authentication is also required if the session doesn't fulfill the session criteria. Once the IDP session is over, the app may rely on the current authentication until it expires, but access can no longer be extended without re-authentication.

Tokens and sessions

Every user authentication creates a new session and returns an access token, ID token, and refresh token (if offline_access was requested). These tokens are bound to the session, user, and client. A valid access token is required to authorize user access to the application, even if there's an active session. The access token (JWT) contains the expiration, user ID, and authorization information—including which resource can be accessed and the user's roles to determine their permissions.

Session lifetime

The session is valid for 2 weeks. Sessions gets extended every time new access tokens are issued during the session lifetime.

A session terminates if the end-user initiates an IDP logout using the Logout API or Terminate sessions API. These will delete all the sessions for the relevant user. An admin can revoke the session using the Revoke sessions API. The session revocation call will delete all the sessions for the specified user, as well as revoke all refresh tokens.

Session cookie

Mosaic creates a session cookie that stores the information needed to obtain user access and authorization, without requiring the user to authenticate. Here are some security guidelines when creating application sessions using cookies: