What is a login session?¶
id: "AI-021" title: "What is a login session?" series: "Accounts and Identity" content_type: "video-script" status: "draft" owner: "IF Digital"
What is a login session?¶
Script¶
A login is an event.
A session is the period of access that follows it.
Once a service accepts the user's credentials or authentication method, it usually creates a session.
That session allows the user to continue using the account without proving their identity again for every action.
The session may last a few minutes, several hours or much longer.
It may end when the user logs out, when the service expires it, when the password changes, or when the provider revokes access.
But not every service behaves the same way.
A user may have several sessions open at once.
One on a phone.
One on a laptop.
One in a browser at work.
One inside an application.
That means account activity may come from different devices without a fresh login each time.
For investigators, the session can be more important than the login record.
Ask when the session began.
Which device, browser, application or IP address was associated with it?
Was the relevant action carried out within that same session?
Did the session remain active after the user changed location or stopped using the device?
Could another person have taken over an already open session?
Provider records may include session identifiers, creation times, device information and revocation events.
Device examination may also reveal tokens, cookies, application data or evidence that the account remained signed in.
Do not assume that every action has its own login.
A message sent at 9 p.m. may have been sent through a session created at 7 a.m.
Do not assume that the person who started the session performed every later action either.
The device may have been shared, left unlocked or accessed remotely.
A login session links a period of account activity together.
It helps explain how access continued.
But attribution still depends on who controlled the session and device at the relevant time.