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Session Types

Ziti has API Session and Session types.

API Session​

API Sessions represent a client that is either partially or fully authenticated as a specific Ziti Identity. They are used to:

Clients interact with API Sessions via an opaque security token value and is received during authentication via /edge/client|management/v1/authenticate.

API Sessions are represented by opaque strings and are provided in the HTTP header zt-session and in Edge Router connection requests initiated by Ziti SDKs. API Sessions remain valid as long they have not timed out.

An API Sessions:

  • can and are represented by a JSON data structure returned from the Client and Management APIs
    • returned from:
      • POST /edge/management/v1/authenticate
      • GET /edge/management/v1/current-api-session
      • POST /edge/client/v1/authenticate
      • GET /edge/client/v1/current-api-session
  • can be referenced by an internal id and a security token that is in the format of a UUID
    • the id can be used on the following endpoints:
      • GET /edge/management/v1/api-sessions/<id>
      • DELETE /edge/management/v1/api-sessions/<id>

API Sessions are defined in the Client and Management Open API 2.0 specifications under currentApiSessionDetail.

Example POST /edge/management/v1/authenticate response:

{
  "data": {
    "_links": {
      "self": {
        "href": "./api-sessions/cl4zptpgqcrinn0hhgm7ek5ve"
      },
      "sessions": {
        "href": "./api-sessions/cl4zptpgqcrinn0hhgm7ek5ve/sessions"
      }
    },
    "createdAt": "2022-06-29T14:51:07.946Z",
    "id": "cl4zptpgqcrinn0hhgm7ek5ve",
    "tags": {},
    "updatedAt": "2022-06-29T14:51:07.946Z",
    "authQueries": [
      {
        "format": "alphaNumeric",
        "httpMethod": "POST",
        "httpUrl": "./authenticate/mfa",
        "maxLength": 6,
        "minLength": 4,
        "provider": "ziti",
        "typeId": "MFA"
      }
    ],
    "authenticatorId": "vxtlfvUj6",
    "cachedLastActivityAt": "2022-06-29T14:51:07.945Z",
    "configTypes": [],
    "identity": {
      "_links": {
        "auth-policies": {
          "href": "./auth-policies/default"
        },
        "authenticators": {
          "href": "./identities/vxtlfvUj6/authenticators"
        },
        "edge-router-policies": {
          "href": "./identities/vxtlfvUj6/edge-routers"
        },
        "enrollments": {
          "href": "./identities/vxtlfvUj6/enrollments"
        },
        "failed-service-requests": {
          "href": "./identities/vxtlfvUj6/failed-service-requests"
        },
        "posture-data": {
          "href": "./identities/vxtlfvUj6/posture-data"
        },
        "self": {
          "href": "./identities/vxtlfvUj6"
        },
        "service-policies": {
          "href": "./identities/vxtlfvUj6/service-policies"
        }
      },
      "entity": "identities",
      "id": "vxtlfvUj6",
      "name": "Default Admin"
    },
    "identityId": "vxtlfvUj6",
    "ipAddress": "127.0.0.1",
    "isMfaComplete": false,
    "isMfaRequired": true,
    "lastActivityAt": "2022-06-29T14:51:07.945Z",
    "token": "44a20395-1a0e-469d-ad9b-80df8dbbf8c4",
    "expirationSeconds": 1800,
    "expiresAt": "2022-06-29T15:21:07.945Z"
  },
  "meta": {}
}

Full vs Partial Authentication​

API Sessions may exist in two states:

  • Partially Authenticated - limited API access
  • Fully Authenticated - full API access

Partial authentication occurs when a primary authentication method has been passed, but secondary Authentication Queries remain outstanding. Ziti Edge models MFA challenges as Authentication Queries. Authentication Queries include information that can be used to display user prompts or direct users to integrating websites for SSO. If no outstanding Authentication Queries are present for an API Session it is considered fully authenticated.

While partially authenticated, the API Session can only be used for a reduced set of operations:

  • answering Authentication Queries
  • enrolling in MFA TOTP
Authentication Queries​

Authentication Queries are represented on an API Session the property authQueries which is an array. An example MFA challenge represented as an Authentication Query is provided below.

{
  "authQueries": [
    {
      "format": "alphaNumeric",
      "httpMethod": "POST",
      "httpUrl": "./authenticate/mfa",
      "maxLength": 6,
      "minLength": 4,
      "provider": "ziti",
      "typeId": "MFA"
    }
  ]
}

The existence of any Authentication Query on an API Session represents a partial authentication state. API Sessions in this state will have reduced access to their target API. The data structure for Authentication Queries is defined in the Client and Management Open API 2.0 specifications under the label authQueryDetail.

Associated Data & Removal​

API Sessions, may be used to create ephemeral certificates called API Session Certificates and sessions for service access. Additionally, API Sessions are used to scope Posture Data. When an API Session is removed for any reason, all associated data is also removed. As an example, when removing an API Session used to create a Session the Session will also be removed. Removing a Session will also terminate any existing connections that used the security token associated with that Session and prevent it from being used to establish new connections.

Removal of an API Session occurs in the following scenarios:

  • timeout
  • administrative removal
  • client removal (logout)

Timeout​

The controller maintains a last accessed at timestamp for every API Session. This timestamp is used to determine whether the timeout has been reached, signaling an API Session removal. Activities that update the timestamp include:

  • Any maintained Edge Router connection
  • Any valid Client or Management API interaction

The API Session timeout defaults to 30 minutes and can be configured in edge.api.sessionTimeout in the controller configuration file.

edge:
  api:
  ...
    # sessionTimeout - optional, default 30m
    # The number of minutes before an Edge API session will time out. Timeouts are reset by
    # API requests and connections that are maintained to Edge Routers
    sessionTimeout: 30m
    ...

Administrative Removal​

Through the Edge Management API any API Session may be forcefully removed by calling DELETE /edge/management/v1/api-sessions<id> with an empty body.

Client Removal (Logout)​

A client may terminate its own API Session at any time by calling: DELETE /edge/client/v1/current-api-session

Session​

A Session represents access to a specific service for dialing or binding. They are scoped to the API Session that was used to create them. They are requested from the controller by a client through the Edge Client API. The result of that request is a security token representing the Session and a list of Edge Routers that the client may use to dial or bind the target service through.

Sessions are removed when the parent API Session is removed, policies are changed to deny access, or when Posture Checks enter an invalid state for the target service.