Okta Global Session Policy Displays Session Idle Time as Session Lifetime

The Okta Global Session Policy summary view displays the maximum session idle time under the label Session Lifetime due to terminology condensation in the read-only summary view. In the Default Rule of the Global Session Policy, the Maximum Okta global session idle time value is displayed as Session Lifetime. Administrators may expect this to be labeled as Session idle time or Maximum Okta global session idle time.

• Okta Identity Engine (OIE)
• Okta Classic Engine
• Global Session Policy

Why is the session idle time displayed as Session Lifetime?

This is expected behavior and not a functional bug. In the read-only summary view of the Default Rule, Okta condenses the configuration concepts. Okta uses Session Lifetime as a generic umbrella label to display the idle time value.

When editing the Global Session Policy rule, Okta splits the configuration into the following two distinct settings:

• Maximum Okta global session lifetime: The absolute maximum time the session can exist before forcing re-authentication, regardless of activity.
• Maximum Okta global session idle time: The amount of inactivity allowed before the session expires.

Because the idle timeout is the most common trigger for a session ending, Okta defaults to displaying the idle time value under the generic Session Lifetime umbrella in the overview.

HealthInsight terminology overlaps with the Global Session Policy.

The Okta internal security center, HealthInsight, also condenses these terms. In the HealthInsight recommendation to enforce a limited session lifetime for all policies, the documentation states that the session lifetime determines the maximum idle time of an Okta session.