Missing session variables and multiple CFID/CFTOKEN
We are using ColdFusion 9.0.1 and have recently started to experience some sporadic behavior in our applications. These applications have worked without error for over 6+ years and have not been modified during this time.
Over the past couple of weeks, we have been receiving calls in regards to users not being able to login and receiving errors when performing various actions. We have put troubleshooting measures in place that display values when this occurs.
We have noticed that when the errors occur, there are multiple CFID/CFTOKEN COOKIE values. Additionally, session variables are being dropped (during simple tasks such as going from one screen to the next). These errors do not occur for the majority of users and have primarily occurred in Internet Explorer, but we have had some instances in other browsers. In most instances, if the user switches browsers, the same application works fine for them.
In one particular case, we have a <cfif> tag in the application.cfm file that checks for “session.user_id”. If it doesn’t exist, the user is directed to a login page using the <cflocation> tag. When experiencing the problem, users are continuously going back to the login screen because the system is saying that the session variable does not exist.
When working with one user who was experiencing this problem, we were able to remedy the problem by adding “addtoken=’yes’” to the cflocation tag. ** We do not prefer to do this for security reasons.
Rather than go through each application and try to “band-aid” each instance that occurs, can anybody offer some suggestions on why this behavior recently began and how we may be able to globally address it?
