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What is the best way to prevent session hijacking?

Asked 2008-08-22T17:02:26.763
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Specifically this is regarding when using a client session cookie to identify a session on the server.

Is the best answer to use SSL/HTTPS encryption for the entire web site, and you have the best guarantee that no man in the middle attacks will be able to sniff an existing client session cookie?

And perhaps second best to use some sort of encryption on the session value itself that is stored in your session cookie?

If a malicious user has physical access to a machine, they can still look at the filesystem to retrieve a valid session cookie and use that to hijack a session?

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To reduce the risk you can also associate the originating IP with the session. That way an attacker has to be within the same private network to be able to use the session.

Checking referer headers can also be an option but those are more easily spoofed.

answered 2008-08-22T17:04:53.527

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