Clarified that Django randomizes session keys. Refs #11555, #13478, #18128.

git-svn-id: http://code.djangoproject.com/svn/django/trunk@17911 bcc190cf-cafb-0310-a4f2-bffc1f526a37

1 files changed, 10 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/docs/topics/http/sessions.txt b/docs/topics/http/sessions.txt
index dcd4ea2c74..4b0bbe4ed5 100644
--- a/docs/topics/http/sessions.txt
+++ b/docs/topics/http/sessions.txt
@@ -349,19 +349,24 @@ An API is available to manipulate session data outside of a view::
 
     >>> from django.contrib.sessions.backends.db import SessionStore
     >>> import datetime
-    >>> s = SessionStore(session_key='2b1189a188b44ad18c35e113ac6ceead')
+    >>> s = SessionStore()
     >>> s['last_login'] = datetime.datetime(2005, 8, 20, 13, 35, 10)
+    >>> s.save()
+    >>> s.session_key
+    '2b1189a188b44ad18c35e113ac6ceead'
+
+    >>> s = SessionStore(session_key='2b1189a188b44ad18c35e113ac6ceead')
     >>> s['last_login']
     datetime.datetime(2005, 8, 20, 13, 35, 0)
-    >>> s.save()
 
-If ``session_key`` isn't provided, one will be generated automatically::
+In order to prevent session fixation attacks, sessions keys that don't exist
+are regenerated::
 
     >>> from django.contrib.sessions.backends.db import SessionStore
-    >>> s = SessionStore()
+    >>> s = SessionStore(session_key='no-such-session-here')
     >>> s.save()
     >>> s.session_key
-    '2b1189a188b44ad18c35e113ac6ceead'
+    'ff882814010ccbc3c870523934fee5a2'
 
 If you're using the ``django.contrib.sessions.backends.db`` backend, each
 session is just a normal Django model. The ``Session`` model is defined in