How to Set up HTTPOnly and SECURE FLAG for session cookies

Question

Hi All,
To fix some vulnerability issues (found in the ethical hacking , penetration testing) I need to set up the session cookies (CFID , CFTOKEN , JSESSIONID) with "HTTPOnly" (so not to access by other non HTTP APIs like Javascript). Also I need to set up a "secure flag" for those session cookies.
I have found the below solutions.
For setting up the HTTPOnly for the session cookies.
1] In application.cfc we can do this by using the below code. Or we can do this in CF admin side under Server Settings » Memory Variables
     this.sessioncookie.httponly = true;
For setting up the secure flag for the session cookies.
2] In application.cfc we can do this by using the below code. Or we can do this in CF admin side under Server Settings » Memory Variables
     this.sessioncookie.secure = "true"
Here my question is how we can do the same thing in Application.cfm?. (I am using ColdFusion version 10). I know we can do this using the below code , incase of HTTPOnly (for example).
<cfapplication setclientcookies="false" sessionmanagement="true" name="test">
<cfif NOT IsDefined("cookie.cfid") OR NOT IsDefined("cookie.cftoken") OR cookie.cftoken IS NOT session.CFToken>
  <cfheader name="Set-Cookie" value="CFID=#session.CFID#;path=/;HTTPOnly">
  <cfheader name="Set-Cookie" value="CFTOKEN=#session.CFTOKEN#;path=/;HTTPOnly">
</cfif>
But in the above code "setclientcookies" has been set to "false". In my application (it is an existing application) this has already been set to "true". If I change this to "false" as mentioned in the above code then ColdFusion will not automatically send CFID and CFTOKEN cookies to client browser and we need to manually code CFID and CFTOKEN on the URL for every page that uses Session. Right???. And this will be headache.Right???. Or any other way to do this.
Your timely help is well appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

BKBK wrote:
Abdul L Koyappayil wrote:
BKBK wrote:
You can switch httponly / secure on and off, as we have done, for CFID and CFToken. However, Tomcat automatically switches JsessionID to 'secure' when it detects that the protocol is secure, that is, HTTPS.
I couldnt understand this. I mean how are you relating this with my question.
When Tomcat detects that the communication protocol is secure (that is, HTTPS), it automatically switches on the 'secure' flag for the J2EE session cookie, JsessionID. Tomcat is configured to do that. Coldfusion has no say in it. So, for JsessionID, 'secure' is automatically set to 'false' when HTTP is detected and automatically set to 'true' when HTTPS is detected.
     If this is the case then why I am getting below info for jsessionid (As you mentioned it should set with SECURE flag . Right???). Note that we are using web server - Apache vFabric .And the application that we are using is in https and there is no hit is going from https to http.
Name:
JSESSIONID
Content:
782BF97F50AEC00B1EBBF1C2DBBBB92F.xyz
Domain:
xyz.abc.pqr.com
Path:
Send for:
Any kind of connection
Accessible to script:
No (HttpOnly)
Created:
Wednesday, September 3, 2014 2:25:10 AM
Expires:
When the browsing session ends
BKBK wrote:
2]When I checked CF Admin->Server Settings->Memory Variables I found that J2EE SESSION has been set to YES. So does this mean that do we need to set HTTPOnly and SECURE flag for JSESSIONID only or for CF session cookies (CFID AND CFTOKEN ) as well ?.
Set HTTPOnly / Secure for the session cookies that you wish to use. Each cookie has its pros and cons. For example, the JsessionID cookie is more secure and more Java-interoperable than CFID/CFToken but, from the explanation above, it forbids the sharing of sessions between HTTP and HTTPS.
     I understood that setting thos flags (httponly/secure) is as per my wish. But my question was , is it necessary to set those flags forcf session cookies (cfid and cftoken) as we have enabled J2EE session in CF admin?. Or in other way as the session management is J2EE based do we need to set those flags for CF session cookies?.
BKBK wrote:
3]If I need to set HTTPOnly and SECURE flag for JSESSIONID , how can I do that.
It is sufficient to set the HTTPOnly only. As I explained above, Tomcat will automatically set 'secure' to 'true' when necessary, that is, when the protocol is HTTPS.
     I understood that it is sufficient to set httponly only.but how we will set it for jsessionid?. This is my question. Apache vFabric will alos set secure to true automatically. Any idea??