nextcloud / nextcloud/server

Add config option to limit session duration regardless of requests/activity (server-side)

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0. Needs triage enhancement feature: authentication
Dominant language
PHP
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Description

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Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Not a problem I've had, just a general security best practice I want to follow.

Describe the solution you'd like

Add a configuration parameter that prevents any session (not including app tokens) from lasting more than the given amount of time, regardless of its activity or how recently it made a request to the server.

Describe alternatives you've considered

I thought session_lifetime combined with auto_logout would do what I want, but looking at the code, that seems to be implemented client-side. (I filed a separate issue for preventing other people from thinking those parameters do what this feature request is about: https://github.com/nextcloud/documentation/issues/7244.)

Additional context

N/A

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing the existing session_lifetime and auto_logout configuration and the server-side session handling; the issue names no files or tests. Define the new setting's expiry semantics, including active sessions and excluded app tokens, then add tests that demonstrate sessions expire at the configured duration.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
php
Domain
authentication, security
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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