Why are cookies unrecognized when a link is clicked from an external source (i.e. Excel, Word, etc…)

Question

I noticed that when a link is clicked externally from the web browser, such as from Excel or Word, that my session cookie is initially unrecognized, even if the link opens u

Answer 1

Here is how to workaround this with Java and Spring via a Filter:

/**
 * To see why this is necessary, check out this page:
 * https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/899927.
 */
public class MicrosoftFilter extends OncePerRequestFilter {
  @Override
  protected void doFilterInternal(final HttpServletRequest request,
      final HttpServletResponse response,
      final FilterChain filterChain) throws ServletException, IOException {
    //Serve up a blank page to anything with a Microsoft Office user agent, forcing it to open the
    //URL in a browser instead of trying to pre-fetch it, getting redirected to SSO, and losing
    //the path of the original link.
    if (!request.getHeader("User-Agent").contains("ms-office")) {
      filterChain.doFilter(request, response);
    }
  }
}

/**
 * Security configuration.
 */
@Configuration
public class SecurityConfiguration {
  @Bean
  public FilterRegistrationBean microsoftFilterRegistrationBean() {
    FilterRegistrationBean registrationBean = new FilterRegistrationBean<>();
    registrationBean.setFilter(new MicrosoftFilter());
    registrationBean.setOrder(Ordered.HIGHEST_PRECEDENCE);
    return registrationBean;
  }
}