nextcloud / nextcloud/server

Remove login token mechanism

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#51,479 1 comment 5 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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0. Needs triage feature: authentication technical debt
Dominant language
PHP
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Description

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

Before Nextcloud (or it's predecessor) tracked sessions and app passwords in the database, remember me login existed. Because session information is typically lost after 20minutes, there is a unique token stored as cookie and database value. The browser uses that cookie as proof that a previous session existed.

Since 2016 Nextcloud has auth tokens for web sessions and app passwords. When a PHP session expires, the session cookie sent could still be used to look up the authtoken table row, regardless of the vanished PHP session.
That means there are currently two mechanisms used in parallel.

Describe the solution you'd like

Drop the login token mechanism and fully rely on app tokens.

Describe alternatives you've considered

N/a

Additional context

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

No files, tests, or entry points are named. Start by tracing the existing login-token and app-token mechanisms described in the issue, then determine the scope of removing the former and fully relying on app tokens.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
php
Domain
authentication, backend
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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