WordPress and PHP Sessions - Security and Performance

1. Does WordPress use PHP sessions?
2. Is PHP session data secure?
3. Can PHP sessions be hacked?
4. Where are WordPress session stored?
5. How do I use native PHP sessions in WordPress?
6. How does session work in PHP?
7. Can users see session data?
8. Why do we need to use a session to preserve data across multiple PHP pages?
9. What is session management PHP?
10. How session hijacking is done?
11. Can you hack session variables?
12. What are the tools available for session hijacking?

Does WordPress use PHP sessions?

WordPress Core does not use sessions. ... However, some plugins or themes will use session_start() or PHP's $_SESSION superglobal. On Pantheon, support for sessions requires the WordPress Native PHP Sessions plugin which we maintain. Sites that need to utilize PHP Sessions should install this plugin.

Is PHP session data secure?

4 Answers. Sessions are significantly safer than, say, cookies. But it is still possible to steal a session and thus the hacker will have total access to whatever is in that session. Some ways to avoid this are IP Checking (which works pretty well, but is very low fi and thus not reliable on its own), and using a nonce ...

Can PHP sessions be hacked?

Sessions are NOT serverside, they are stored on the clients local machine (you can go in your cookies and look for a cookie called phpssid under your domain name). Yes they can be hacked, and this is in fact a very common method of hacking.

Where are WordPress session stored?

The details of the session are stored in the WordPress database, specifically in wp_usermeta table. If a session is not terminated by the user via a logout, WordPress automatically terminates the session after a certain period of time.

How do I use native PHP sessions in WordPress?

Installation

1. Upload to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress.

How does session work in PHP?

the session id is sent to the user when his session is created. it is stored in a cookie (called, by default, PHPSESSID ) that cookie is sent by the browser to the server with each request. the server (PHP) uses that cookie, containing the session_id, to know which file corresponds to that user.

Can users see session data?

Well user can easily get info of whether session has been created or website is having session or not. But what variable are being set in session can never be known by user. No, SESSION variables are on the server side so from the client's perspective, they cannot change them.

Why do we need to use a session to preserve data across multiple PHP pages?

A session is a way to store information (in variables) to be used across multiple pages. Unlike a cookie, the information is not stored on the users computer.

What is session management PHP?

PHP session is used to store and pass information from one page to another temporarily (until user close the website). ... PHP session creates unique user id for each browser to recognize the user and avoid conflict between multiple browsers.

How session hijacking is done?

Session hijacking is an attack where a user session is taken over by an attacker. ... To perform session hijacking, an attacker needs to know the victim's session ID (session key). This can be obtained by stealing the session cookie or persuading the user to click a malicious link containing a prepared session ID.

Can you hack session variables?

So, to hack your session values would require hacking the remote-server. ... Normally session cookies have a short TTL (time to live) before they expire and log you out, but if not then explicitly logging out should clear it. If you are really worried you can delete your cookies.

What are the tools available for session hijacking?

List of Session Hijacking Tools

• Burp Suite.
• Ettercap.
• OWASP ZAP.
• BetterCAP.
• netool toolkit.
• WebSploit Framework.
• sslstrip.
• JHijack.