Why session timeout is important

Sounds like a good thing — in principle. Session timeout defines an action window which represents the time span in which an attacker can try to steal and use an existing user session. Session expiration is mandatory unless you want to give an attacker unlimited time to guess or brute-force a valid session token.

You definitively need to acknowledge that a session token, for example a cookie, represents your credentials for accessing protected content. During the time of its validity the token is as confidential and worth protecting as username and password itself. This becomes particularly critical if the transport of tokens is in clear, only secured by weak encryption, in shared environments or if you take into account that session tokens can potentially be logged by servers or proxy servers.

Sounds unrealistic? Think of the situation when you go for a meeting and leave you laptop unlocked. Someone can easily access your browser, retrieve cookie information, and go back to his own computer impersonating you.

In that case the best prevention would be locking the screen or manually logging out before leaving. But, in the rare case we forgot to lock the screen, an idle timeout would mitigate the risk of cookie theft. If the attacker steals the cookie, say 20 min after you left your desk, an idle timeout of 15 min would have saved you and your data. OddJob infected Firefox and Internet Explorer stealing session identifiers of online banking applications, intercepting manual logout commands from the user, hijacking sessions and keeping them alive by sending periodic requests to the server.

Ending up with access to banking account information and transactions for a long time. And what is the impact to session timeouts? Other companies like Autotrader have customers with usage patterns that vary widely based on purchase and maintenance cycles. For any application with long periods between end-user engagement, users understandably forget their passwords.

Frustrated customers have to contact call center staff to request password resets. Forgotten passwords may lead to decreased customer satisfaction, paired with increased business operation costs. For low-risk engagements, you can provide better user experience by implementing a longer session limit, which could become the difference between keeping or losing a customer. While Auth0 focuses on making your applications more secure, we also understand the substantial value of your end-user experience.

Everything considered, long-lived sessions work exceptionally well for organizations with periodic or even intermittent engagement cycles.

Poor user experience can lead to customer dissatisfaction. Insufficient security can amount to legal penalties, fines, and losing customer trust. The combination of poor user experience and insufficient security can compound into a catastrophic punch to damage a brand. Timeouts may occur if you step away from your computer or leave a session window in an idle state.

Timeouts ensure that sessions close when they are no longer in use, preventing unauthorized access and reducing exposure to data breaches.

Session Timeouts beta. GSA Security Policy requires inactive user sessions to time out. In beta. In line with industry standards, beta. If you do not respond to the prompt in time, you will be automatically signed out. This is done to protect your account and the integrity of the system.

Rate sessions can be used to calculate crude rates, age-adjusted rates, and trends in rates over time. This will limit your options in the Rate session so that the resultant matrix will contain usable referent rates. Why session timeout is important? Asked by: Mr. Saige Daugherty. Change session and campaign timeout settings. Navigate to a property. What is the default session timeout?

How do you implement idle session timeout? What is Session Time? How do I stop Teamviewer timeout? Determine inactive sessions automatically. How do you end a User session? What is session expiration? How is session Duration calculated? How do I check my idle session timeout? In this article. What's the idle timeout?