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Check if a user has an active session via the back channel using session_index

Check if a user has an active session via the back channel using session_index

2019-06-18

After a user has logged in interactively, a downstream non-browser application can request the status of user session via a back channel request.

Ubisecure SSO includes the /uas/status endpoint for this purpose.

OAuth id_tokens contain the Ubisecure extension session_index which can be used to resolve current SSO session status for a given user session.

Step-by-step guide

 

  1. For the request, you need the EntityID of the SAML2 application or the client_id of the OAuth2 application.

  2. The id_token and userinfo response contains an OAuth2 extension called session_index. You must pass this session_index value to the non-interactive application and then call our /uas/status endpoint in the back channel using the sessionIndex and entityID parameters.
    The session_index value cannot be used to retrieve user information, only for finding out if there is a valid session or not.

    e.g.

    https://XXXXXX.example.com/uas/status?entityID={client_id}&sessionIndex={session_index}&type=application/json

    The response is by default in JSON format. Other formats are supported if sending the query parameter “type”

    “application/xml” or “application/json” for XML or JSON respectively.

  3. If there is a session, the request message looks like this:

    Request

    https://mno.ubidemo.com/uas/status?entityID=c495bb59-f0ae-430a-9830-ca8228aa58fe&sessionIndex=_d6ee2628b0d493809650c06b2653083511d6e474

    The response is in JSON format

    Response

    { "valid": true, "issueInstant": 1499433097694, "refresh": false, "entityID": "c495bb59-f0ae-430a-9830-ca8228aa58fe", "sessionIndex": "_d6ee2628b0d493809650c06b2653083511d6e474", "sessionNotOnOrAfter": 1499436584471, "authnInstant": 1499432984462 }

  4. If you include the refresh parameter, the user session is extended:

    Request

    https://mno.ubidemo.com/uas/status?entityID=c495bb59-f0ae-430a-9830-ca8228aa58fe&sessionIndex=_d6ee2628b0d493809650c06b2653083511d6e474&refresh=true

    Notice how the sessionNotOnOrAfter value increases in the response

    Response

    { "valid": true, "issueInstant": 1499433264743, "refresh": true, "entityID": "c495bb59-f0ae-430a-9830-ca8228aa58fe", "sessionIndex": "_d6ee2628b0d493809650c06b2653083511d6e474", "sessionNotOnOrAfter": 1499436864743, "authnInstant": 1499432984462 }

  5. If there is no session, the message looks like this:

    Invalid session response

    { "valid":false, "issueInstant":1495183121690 }

 

Consider system performance when designing when and how often to make such requests to prevent unnecessary load.

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