Silhouette authenticator cypter key, cookie signer key

Question

Silhouette has in its seed project in config file two lines I don't understand:

authenticator.cookie.signer.key = "[changeme]" // A unique encryption key
authenticator.crypter.key = "[changeme]" // A unique encryption key

Can somebody tell me what are these used for, if I need them for my https web page and how to generate these keys. There is no info in docs.

Answer 1

This is attempting to crypt the authenticator cookie generated by Silhouette.

To generate both encryption keys (both different) you could use the playGenerateSecret task coming from activator (see https://www.playframework.com/documentation/2.5.x/ApplicationSecret) and copy/paste the generated value.

Your authenticator cookie is now strongly encrypted :

authenticator=1-9281212ae68b1a47807f25a156d8fc9f1cdfb552-1-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