diff --git a/app/server/lib/BootProbes.ts b/app/server/lib/BootProbes.ts
index adef48110b..36c3786c56 100644
--- a/app/server/lib/BootProbes.ts
+++ b/app/server/lib/BootProbes.ts
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import { GristServer } from 'app/server/lib/GristServer';
 import * as express from 'express';
 import WS from 'ws';
 import fetch from 'node-fetch';
-import { DEFAULT_SESSION_SECRET } from 'app/server/lib/coreCreator';
+import { DEFAULT_SESSION_SECRET } from 'app/server/lib/ICreate';
 
 /**
  * Self-diagnostics useful when installing Grist.
diff --git a/app/server/lib/ICreate.ts b/app/server/lib/ICreate.ts
index 4b4d66eeea..6e6ed5a79b 100644
--- a/app/server/lib/ICreate.ts
+++ b/app/server/lib/ICreate.ts
@@ -13,6 +13,29 @@ import {createSandbox, SpawnFn} from 'app/server/lib/NSandbox';
 import {SqliteVariant} from 'app/server/lib/SqliteCommon';
 import {ITelemetry} from 'app/server/lib/Telemetry';
 
+// In the past, the session secret was used as an additional
+// protection passed on to expressjs-session for security when
+// generating session IDs, in order to make them less guessable.
+// Quoting the upstream documentation,
+//
+//     Using a secret that cannot be guessed will reduce the ability
+//     to hijack a session to only guessing the session ID (as
+//     determined by the genid option).
+//
+//   https://expressjs.com/en/resources/middleware/session.html
+//
+// However, since this change,
+//
+//   https://github.com/gristlabs/grist-core/commit/24ce54b586e20a260376a9e3d5b6774e3fa2b8b8#diff-d34f5357f09d96e1c2ba63495da16aad7bc4c01e7925ab1e96946eacd1edb094R121-R124
+//
+// session IDs are now completely randomly generated in a cryptographically
+// secure way, so there is no danger of session IDs being guessable.
+// This makes the value of the session secret less important. The only
+// concern is that changing the secret will invalidate existing
+// sessions and force users to log in again.
+export const DEFAULT_SESSION_SECRET =
+  'Phoo2ag1jaiz6Moo2Iese2xoaphahbai3oNg7diemohlah0ohtae9iengafieS2Hae7quungoCi9iaPh';
+
 export interface ICreate {
 
   Billing(dbManager: HomeDBManager, gristConfig: GristServer): IBilling;
@@ -72,6 +95,15 @@ export interface ICreateTelemetryOptions {
   create(dbManager: HomeDBManager, gristConfig: GristServer): ITelemetry|undefined;
 }
 
+/**
+ * This function returns a `create` object that defines various core
+ * aspects of a Grist installation, such as what kind of billing or
+ * sandbox to use, if any.
+ *
+ * The intended use of this function is to initialise Grist with
+ * different settings and providers, to facilitate different editions
+ * such as standard, enterprise or cloud-hosted.
+ */
 export function makeSimpleCreator(opts: {
   deploymentType: GristDeploymentType,
   sessionSecret?: string,
@@ -116,11 +148,7 @@ export function makeSimpleCreator(opts: {
       return createSandbox(opts.sandboxFlavor || 'unsandboxed', options);
     },
     sessionSecret() {
-      const secret = process.env.GRIST_SESSION_SECRET || sessionSecret;
-      if (!secret) {
-        throw new Error('need GRIST_SESSION_SECRET');
-      }
-      return secret;
+      return process.env.GRIST_SESSION_SECRET || sessionSecret || DEFAULT_SESSION_SECRET;
     },
     async configure() {
       for (const s of storage || []) {
diff --git a/app/server/lib/coreCreator.ts b/app/server/lib/coreCreator.ts
index 477c970b4d..2eda4e9f9b 100644
--- a/app/server/lib/coreCreator.ts
+++ b/app/server/lib/coreCreator.ts
@@ -3,14 +3,8 @@ import { checkMinIOBucket, checkMinIOExternalStorage,
 import { makeSimpleCreator } from 'app/server/lib/ICreate';
 import { Telemetry } from 'app/server/lib/Telemetry';
 
-export const DEFAULT_SESSION_SECRET =
-  'Phoo2ag1jaiz6Moo2Iese2xoaphahbai3oNg7diemohlah0ohtae9iengafieS2Hae7quungoCi9iaPh';
-
 export const makeCoreCreator = () => makeSimpleCreator({
   deploymentType: 'core',
-  // This can and should be overridden by GRIST_SESSION_SECRET
-  // (or generated randomly per install, like grist-omnibus does).
-  sessionSecret: DEFAULT_SESSION_SECRET,
   storage: [
     {
       name: 'minio',