timefrontiers / php-session
Modern PHP session manager with authentication state, access control, and CSRF protection
Requires
- php: >=8.1
- psr/log: ^3.0
- timefrontiers/php-core: ^1.0
- timefrontiers/php-instance-error: ^1.0
Requires (Dev)
- phpstan/phpstan: ^1.10
- phpunit/phpunit: ^10.0
Suggests
- ext-redis: For Redis session storage
- timefrontiers/php-location: For IP geolocation support
README
Modern PHP session manager with authentication state, access control, CSRF protection, and geolocation.
Installation
composer require timefrontiers/php-session
Features
- Secure session handling with HTTPOnly, SameSite cookies
- User authentication state management
- Access rank/group based authorization
- CSRF token generation and validation
- Flash messages
- IP geolocation integration
- PSR-3 logger support
Quick Start
use TimeFrontiers\Session; use TimeFrontiers\AccessRank; // Start session $session = new Session(); // Check if logged in if (!$session->isLoggedIn()) { // Show login form } // Access user info echo $session->id(); // e.g. 1 echo $session->name; // uniqueid e.g. "01234567890" echo $session->access_rank(); // 4 (MODERATOR) echo $session->access_group(); // AccessGroup::MODERATOR // Full user object $user = $session->user(); echo $user->surname; // Geolocation $loc = $session->location(); echo $loc?->country;
Authentication
Login
// User object from your database — must have 'id' and 'uniqueid' $user = (object)[ 'id' => 123, 'uniqueid' => '01234567890', 'name' => 'John', 'surname' => 'Doe', 'access_group' => AccessGroup::MODERATOR, 'access_rank' => AccessRank::MODERATOR, ]; // Login with 30-minute session (default) $session->login($user); // Custom session lifetime (2 hours) $session->login($user, session_lifetime: 7200);
Note: "Remember me" / persistent login requires storing a token in your database and is intentionally left to the application layer.
Logout
$session->logout();
Check Authentication
if ($session->isLoggedIn()) { $userId = $session->getUserId(); // or $session->id() $name = $session->name; // uniqueid of logged-in user $user = $session->user(); // full user object }
Access Control
use TimeFrontiers\AccessRank; // Check rank if ($session->hasRank(AccessRank::MODERATOR)) { // Can moderate } // Check group if ($session->inGroup(AccessGroup::ADMIN)) { // Is admin } // Convenience methods if ($session->isStaff()) { } // MODERATOR or higher if ($session->isTechnical()) { } // DEVELOPER or higher if ($session->isAdmin()) { } // ADMIN or higher // Via getters if ($session->access_rank() >= AccessRank::DEVELOPER->value) { // Show debug info }
CSRF Protection
Generate Token
// In your form $token = $session->generateCSRFToken('contact_form');
<form method="post"> <input type="hidden" name="_csrf_token" value="<?= $token ?>"> <!-- form fields --> </form>
Or use the helper:
echo $session->csrfField('contact_form'); // Outputs: <input type="hidden" name="_csrf_token" value="...">
Validate Token
if (!$session->validateCSRFToken('contact_form', $_POST['_csrf_token'])) { die('Invalid CSRF token'); }
Tokens are single-use and automatically expire (default: 1 hour). Expired tokens from other forms are pruned automatically on each generateCSRFToken() call.
User Object Storage
set(), get(), has(), and remove() operate on the authenticated user object and are persisted to the session. Use these to attach extra data to the user mid-session.
// Store data on the user object $session->set('theme', 'dark'); // Retrieve $theme = $session->get('theme', 'light'); // Default: 'light' // Check existence if ($session->has('theme')) { } // Remove $session->remove('theme'); // Get all user object properties as array $all = $session->all();
Flash Messages
Flash messages persist for one request only.
// Set flash message $session->flash('success', 'Profile updated!'); // Redirect... // Get and remove flash message if ($session->hasFlash('success')) { echo $session->getFlash('success'); }
Session Expiry
// Get expiration timestamp $expires = $session->getExpiry(); // Check if expired if ($session->isExpired()) { // Re-authenticate } // Extend session by 30 minutes $session->extendExpiry(1800);
Geolocation
Requires timefrontiers/php-location:
// Refresh location from IP $session->refreshLocation(); // Access location data $loc = $session->location(); if ($loc) { echo $loc->country; // "United States" echo $loc->country_code; // "US" echo $loc->city; // "San Francisco" echo $loc->currency_code; // "USD" }
Logging
Pass a PSR-3 logger for session events:
use Monolog\Logger; use Monolog\Handler\StreamHandler; $logger = new Logger('session'); $logger->pushHandler(new StreamHandler('session.log')); $session = new Session($logger);
Error Handling
Session uses static error collection for compatibility with InstanceError:
use TimeFrontiers\InstanceError; $session->login($invalidUser); if ($session->hasErrors()) { $extractor = new InstanceError($session); $errors = $extractor->get('login'); foreach ($errors as $err) { echo $err[2]; // Error message } } // Clear errors Session::clearErrors();
Security Features
- Session ID regeneration on login (prevents fixation)
- Secure cookies (HTTPOnly, SameSite=Lax)
- HTTPS-only cookies when available
- Timing-safe CSRF token comparison (
hash_equals) - Single-use CSRF tokens with automatic expiry pruning
- No session ID regeneration on every request (prevents concurrency issues)
Dependencies
psr/log- For PSR-3 logger interfacetimefrontiers/php-core- For AccessRank and AccessGroup enumstimefrontiers/php-instance-error- For error extraction
Optional Dependencies
timefrontiers/php-location- For IP geolocation
License
MIT