# frontend.ini The `frontend.ini` config file, located at `/etc/squirro/frontend.ini` configures the workings of the Squirro frontend user interface ## HTTP Session Configuration See [Reducing Session Lifetime](../secure-config-guide.md#session-lifetime). ### Session Secret Key To ensure the session cookies are hashed uniquely, you should add a custom secret key to the configuration file. This must be set to the same value on all servers of a cluster. Changing this value also has the side-effect that all existing user sessions expire immediately. > **Tip** > > Adding a custom key is recommended when changing other session configuration parameters or when updating the Single Sign-On configuration. #### How to Add a Custom Secret Key To add a custom key, edit `/etc/squirro/frontend.ini` and add the following configuration: ```ini [flask_app] secret_key = ce380f53ca31a529b480dcb217c45889cafeb43d89ef1879320b3128c8e9143a ``` A new value can be generated in any cryptographically secure way. One approach is to use the following commands: ```shell-session $ squirro_activate $ python -c 'import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex())' ``` From the Flask documentation: > **Note** > > If a secret key is set, cryptographic components can use this to sign cookies and other things. Set this to a complex random value when you want to use the secure cookie for instance. > This attribute can also be configured from the config with the SECRET_KEY configuration key. Defaults to None. ## Applying Changes After editing this configuration file, the service `sqfrontendd` has to be restarted (see [Services](../../operations/services.md#admin-services)).