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Accounts and sessions

Session

Also called browser session, login session, session ID, session hijacking

Definition

A session is the period during which a website recognises you as the same visitor, usually because the browser sends back a cookie holding a random session ID that the server links to your login.

Last updated 7 November 2026

How it works

When you sign in, the server creates a session record and gives the browser an identifier for it, normally in a cookie. Each later request carries the cookie, and the server looks the session up instead of asking for your password again. A session ends when it expires, when you sign out, or when the server decides to end it, for example after a password change or when something about the session looks wrong.

Many sites watch for exactly that. A session ID that suddenly arrives from a different country, a different device or a different browser is a classic sign that someone copied it, and sites respond with a new sign-in or a verification step.

Why it matters when you run several accounts

A stable session is what keeps an account signed in without constant verification. That means the same profile, the same device values and a stable network location from one visit to the next. Two people driving the same session at once, or a session hopping between proxies, is what breaks it.

How SoftGlaze Browser handles it

A profile’s cookies and storage stay in its own folder between launches, so its logins persist across restarts, and its cookies stay put when a rotation pool changes its proxy (whether a site accepts the session from a new address is the site’s decision). A running profile is locked to the member who opened it, so two people can’t drive the same session by accident, and launching a profile that is already open reuses the running browser instead of opening a second one on the same data.

Sources

  1. Session Management Cheat SheetOWASP
  2. Using HTTP cookiesMDN Web Docs

Outside sources were checked in November 2026. Browsers, standards and vendors' pages change, so details that depend on them are as of that month.

Related terms

  • CookiesCookies are small named values that a website asks the browser to store and send back with later requests, which is how a site remembers a login, a basket or a preference between page loads.
  • Sticky sessionA sticky session is a proxy setting that keeps you on the same exit IP address for a period of time or until you ask for a new one, instead of changing it on every request.
  • Local storageLocal storage is the space a browser gives each website to keep data on your device between visits, most simply through the localStorage interface, where values stay until the site or the user removes them.
  • Two-factor authentication (2FA)Two-factor authentication (2FA) is a sign-in that needs two different kinds of proof, typically a password plus a one-time code from an authenticator app, a text message or a security key.
  • Browser profileA browser profile is a self-contained set of browser data (cookies, local storage, history, saved logins, extensions and settings) kept in its own folder, so two profiles on one computer don't see each other's sessions.

Read more on this site

See it in SoftGlaze Browser

Separate profiles, each with its own cookies, device values and proxy, on Windows. Try the app's screens in your browser first, or start the free trial; no card needed.

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