Session management

Sessions track user interactions with a resource within a given time frame. For example, the resource may be an application (app), or identity provider (IDP)—a service that creates, manages, and stores digital identities like Transmit Security. By managing sessions, you can allow your users to securely access your application, without needing to reauthenticate for every request. This provides an enhanced identity experience that doesn't compromise on security.

Application sessions

An application session (also known as a local session) is created by the app when the user logs in. By default, a session ends when the user leaves the website or closes the browser. However, an app can extend the session by storing information in a cookie so the user won't need to authenticate each time they return. The session lifetime is managed by the app. Once the application session is over, the user must re-authenticate.

IDP sessions

An IDP session is created by Transmit Security when a user logs into the app. Each IDP session is bound to a specific user. Transmit 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 reauthentication.

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 if an admin revokes the session using the Session Revocation API. A logout will delete all the sessions for the relevant user. The session revocation call will delete all the sessions for the specified user, as well as revoke the corresponding refresh tokens.

Session cookie

Transmit 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: