Session

Authelia relies on session cookies to authorize user access to various protected websites. This section configures the session cookie behavior and the domains which Authelia can service authorization requests for.

Configuration#

session:
  secret: 'insecure_session_secret'
  name: 'authelia_session'
  same_site: 'lax'
  inactivity: '5m'
  expiration: '1h'
  remember_me: '1M'
  cookies:
    - domain: 'example.com'
      authelia_url: 'https://auth.example.com'
      default_redirection_url: 'https://www.example.com'
      name: 'authelia_session'
      same_site: 'lax'
      inactivity: '5m'
      expiration: '1h'
      remember_me: '1d'

Providers#

There are currently two providers for session storage (three if you count Redis Sentinel as a separate provider):

• Memory (default, stateful, no additional configuration)
• Redis (stateless).
• Redis Sentinel (stateless, highly available).

Kubernetes or High Availability#

It’s important to note when picking a provider, the stateful providers are not recommended in High Availability scenarios like Kubernetes. Each provider has a note beside it indicating it is stateful or stateless the stateless providers are recommended.

Options#

This section describes the individual configuration options.

secret#

Important Note: This can also be defined using a secret which is strongly recommended especially for containerized deployments.

The secret key used to encrypt session data in Redis.

It’s strongly recommended this is a Random Alphanumeric String with 64 or more characters.

name#

The default name value for all cookies configurations.

same_site#

The default same_site value for all cookies configurations.

inactivity#

The default inactivity value for all cookies configurations.

expiration#

The default expiration value for all cookies configurations.

remember_me#

The default remember_me value for all cookies configurations.

cookies#

The list of specific cookie domains that Authelia is configured to handle. Domains not properly configured will automatically be denied by Authelia. The list allows administrators to define multiple session cookie domain configurations with individual settings.

domain#

Important Note: Browsers have rules regarding which cookie domains a website can write. In particular the Public Suffix List usually contains domains which are not permitted.

The domain the session cookie is assigned to protect. This must be the same as the domain Authelia is served on or the root of the domain, and consequently if the authelia_url is configured must be able to read and write cookies for this domain.

For example if Authelia is accessible via the URL https://auth.example.com the domain should be either auth.example.com or example.com.

The value must not match a domain on the Public Suffix List as browsers do not allow websites to write cookies for these domains. This includes most Dynamic DNS services such as duckdns.org. You should use your domain instead of duckdns.org for this value, for example example.duckdns.org.

Consequently, if you have example.duckdns.org and example-auth.duckdns.org you cannot share cookies between these domains.

authelia_url#

This is a required URL which is the root URL of your Authelia installation for this cookie domain which can be used to generate the appropriate redirection URL when authentication is required. This URL must:

1. Be able to read and write cookies for the configured domain.
2. Use the https:// scheme.
3. Include the path if relevant (i.e. https://example.com/authelia rather than https://example.com if you’re using the server address option of authelia to specify a subpath and if the Authelia portal is inaccessible from https://example.com).

The appropriate query parameter or header for your relevant proxy can override this behavior.

default_redirection_url#

This is a completely optional URL which is used as the redirection location when visiting Authelia directly. This option deprecates the global default_redirection_url option. This URL must:

1. Be able to read and write cookies for the configured domain.
2. Use the https:// scheme.
3. Not be the same as the authelia_url

If this option is absent you must use the appropriate query parameter or header for your relevant proxy.

name#

Default Value: This option takes its default value from the name setting above.

The name of the session cookie. By default this is set to the name value in the main session configuration section.

same_site#

Default Value: This option takes its default value from the same_site setting above.

Sets the cookies SameSite value. Prior to offering the configuration choice this defaulted to None. The new default is Lax. This option is defined in lower-case. So for example if you want to set it to Strict, the value in configuration needs to be strict.

You can read about the SameSite cookie in detail on the MDN. In short setting SameSite to Lax is generally the most desirable option for Authelia. None is not recommended unless you absolutely know what you’re doing and trust all the protected apps. Strict is not going to work in many use cases and we have not tested it in this state but it’s available as an option anyway.

inactivity#

Default Value: This option takes its default value from the inactivity setting above.

The period of time the user can be inactive for until the session is destroyed. Useful if you want long session timers but don’t want unused devices to be vulnerable.

expiration#

Default Value: This option takes its default value from the expiration setting above.

The period of time before the cookie expires and the session is destroyed. This is overridden by remember_me when the remember me box is checked.

remember_me#

Default Value: This option takes its default value from the remember_me setting above.

The period of time before the cookie expires and the session is destroyed when the remember me box is checked. Setting this to -1 disables this feature entirely for this session cookie domain.

Security#

Configuration of this section has an impact on security. You should read notes in security measures for more information.