Is it possible to retrieve session values within the nginx config file?

Filisimus

2/17/24, 8:39 AM

just a quick question. I have a php webapp that sets a session cookie with values for username, isAdmin, etc. Is there any way that I could extract that information in the nginx config file?

log_format custom ' "TEST: $cookie_PHPSESSID"';

This will give me the session ID of the cookie but I need its content and I cant find any way to retrieve it.

Using a permanent cookie would work but is a bad idea because users would be able to change the cookie values easily.

Thanks in advance, Fili

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Salim Aljayousi

2/17/24, 9:57 AM

It is not possible to retrieve session values within the Nginx configuration file directly. The Nginx configuration file is a static configuration that is parsed at startup and used to handle incoming requests. It does not have access to any dynamic runtime information, such as session data, which is handled by the PHP application.

However, there are some workarounds you can use to get access to the session data in Nginx. One approach is to use a reverse proxy setup with Nginx. In this setup, Nginx acts as a frontend server that forwards requests to a backend application server, such as Apache or PHP-FPM, which handles the dynamic content.

location / {
    proxy_pass http://backend;
    proxy_set_header Cookie $http_cookie;
}

Another approach is to store the session data in a shared storage that can be accessed by both Nginx and the PHP application. For example, you could store the session data in a database or a key-value store, and use Nginx to retrieve the data from the store based on the session ID in the cookie.

+ 1

Filisimus

2/22/24, 10:04 AM

Thanks for your reply and my pologies for not answering earlier, unfortunately I got sick. I'll take your advice and give OpenResty a try so both the reverse proxy and web app can access the database.

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