This cookie-based session store is the Rails default. Sessions typically contain at most a user_id and flash message; both fit within the 4K cookie size limit. Cookie-based sessions are dramatically faster than the alternatives.
If you have more than 4K of session data or don’t want your data to be visible to the user, pick another session store.
CookieOverflow is raised if you attempt to store more than 4K of data.
A message digest is included with the cookie to ensure data integrity: a user cannot alter his user_id without knowing the secret key included in the hash. New apps are generated with a pregenerated secret in config/environment.rb. Set your own for old apps you’re upgrading.
Session options:
:secret: An application-wide key string or block returning a string called per generated digest. The block is called with the CGI::Session instance as an argument. It's important that the secret is not vulnerable to a dictionary attack. Therefore, you should choose a secret consisting of random numbers and letters and more than 30 characters. Examples:
:secret => '449fe2e7daee471bffae2fd8dc02313d' :secret => Proc.new { User.current_user.secret_key }
:digest: The message digest algorithm used to verify session integrity defaults to 'SHA1' but may be any digest provided by OpenSSL, such as 'MD5', 'RIPEMD160', 'SHA256', etc.
To generate a secret key for an existing application, run “rake secret” and set the key in config/environment.rb.
Note that changing digest or secret invalidates all existing sessions!
Cookies can typically store 4096 bytes.
# File lib/action_controller/session/cookie_store.rb, line 59 def initialize(app, options = {}) # Process legacy CGI options options = options.symbolize_keys if options.has_key?(:session_path) ActiveSupport::Deprecation.warn "Giving :session_path to SessionStore is deprecated, " << "please use :path instead", caller options[:path] = options.delete(:session_path) end if options.has_key?(:session_key) ActiveSupport::Deprecation.warn "Giving :session_key to SessionStore is deprecated, " << "please use :key instead", caller options[:key] = options.delete(:session_key) end if options.has_key?(:session_http_only) ActiveSupport::Deprecation.warn "Giving :session_http_only to SessionStore is deprecated, " << "please use :httponly instead", caller options[:httponly] = options.delete(:session_http_only) end @app = app # The session_key option is required. ensure_session_key(options[:key]) @key = options.delete(:key).freeze # The secret option is required. ensure_secret_secure(options[:secret]) @secret = options.delete(:secret).freeze @digest = options.delete(:digest) || 'SHA1' @verifier = verifier_for(@secret, @digest) @default_options = DEFAULT_OPTIONS.merge(options).freeze freeze end
# File lib/action_controller/session/cookie_store.rb, line 96 def call(env) prepare!(env) status, headers, body = @app.call(env) session_data = env[ENV_SESSION_KEY] options = env[ENV_SESSION_OPTIONS_KEY] request = ActionController::Request.new(env) if !(options[:secure] && !request.ssl?) && (!session_data.is_a?(AbstractStore::SessionHash) || session_data.loaded? || options[:expire_after]) session_data.send(:load!) if session_data.is_a?(AbstractStore::SessionHash) && !session_data.loaded? persistent_session_id!(session_data) session_data = marshal(session_data.to_hash) raise CookieOverflow if session_data.size > MAX cookie = Hash.new cookie[:value] = session_data unless options[:expire_after].nil? cookie[:expires] = Time.now + options[:expire_after] end Rack::Utils.set_cookie_header!(headers, @key, cookie.merge(options)) end [status, headers, body] end
Generated with the Darkfish Rdoc Generator 2.