Skip to content

The web server must generate a session ID long enough that it cannot be guessed through brute force.

An XCCDF Rule

Description

Generating a session identifier (ID) that is not easily guessed through brute force is essential to deter several types of session attacks. By knowing the session ID, an attacker can hijack a user session that has already been user authenticated by the hosted application. The attacker does not need to guess user identifiers and passwords or have a secure token since the user session has already been authenticated. Generating session IDs that are at least 128 bits (16 bytes) in length will cause an attacker to take a large amount of time and resources to guess, reducing the likelihood of an attacker guessing a session ID.

ID
SV-206401r961119_rule
Version
SRG-APP-000224-WSR-000137
Severity
Medium
References
Updated

Remediation Templates

A Manual Procedure

Configure the web server to generate session identifiers that are at least 128 bits in length.