Tagged Questions

3
votes
3answers
135 views

Does the ability for a user to choose the value of a session id cookie constitute a security flaw?

In the context of a web application, a user connects to this application and a session id cookie is set to authenticate the user for next requests. As the cookie is actually present before submitting ...
1
vote
3answers
210 views

What typically is the expiration date of a session cookie?

I need to create a session cookie using JavaScript (for more info see question). I'm wondering what should the expiry date be? I'm guessing it's the browsing session, so if I don't set an expiration ...
9
votes
4answers
941 views

Demystifying Web Authentication (Stateless Session Cookies)

I'm currently researching user authentication protocols for a website I'm developing. I would like to create an authentication cookie so users can stay logged in between pages. Here is my first ...
1
vote
1answer
518 views

Stopping Session Hijacking

If you noticed, I put "stopping" instead "preventing" in the title because I want my PHP application to be as secure as possible. I am wondering if anyone has any better ways to prevent session ...
4
votes
2answers
310 views

Best way to securely set a session cookie on another domain

We currently have 2 sites http://www.foo.co.uk and https://secure.foo.com. The www site does not have an SSL certificate and is on a different domain. We have a login button on http://www.foo.co.uk ...
2
votes
2answers
149 views

How attacker can access victim's account without knowing its credentials?

I want to login facebook from a wifi connection and check sign-in page is over https but later when i don't pay attention to address bar (for example when playing games and click on links like a crazy ...
4
votes
1answer
248 views

A Secure Cookie Protocol

As title says I'm trying to implement a secure cookie protocol HMAC(username|expiration name|data|session key, sk) It seams that session key is not constant during whole application session ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views

OAuth access token vs session key

Is there any advantage to OAuth vs cookie-based sessions (established via username/password) under the following assumptions? There is only one legitimate client to the service The OAuth client ...
6
votes
3answers
913 views

CSRF cookie vs session based tokens

I will generate a CSRF token and include it in a hidden form field. When receiving the request, I will check the form value against the value either stored in the user's session or in a cookie. Is it ...
12
votes
4answers
1k views

Why users want to disable cookies?

I just started to create a new web application. In the documentation, it is written that I have to prepare for the situation where users have disabled cookies. This is not the first time I have read ...
10
votes
3answers
1k views

What risks do Cookieless sessions have? What are the mitigations?

I'm debating if I should support cookieless sessions in my web app. It would look something like this: http://www.example.com/(S(lit3py55t21z5v55vlm25s55))/orderform.aspx Since the URL is never ...
7
votes
5answers
843 views

What do the various browser “private modes” do?

Recently there has been some disagreement as to what "private mode" means when it comes to various browsers. Primarily I am referring to... IE's "InPrivate Browsing" Google Chrome's "Incognito ...
2
votes
2answers
408 views

Is my current method of handling session cookies insecure?

I'm writing a multi-tenant application where accounts are scoped by subdomains. This adds considerable complexity and I'm starting to worry about security. Each user can have several accounts. For ...
2
votes
3answers
372 views

Session fixation attack

Given the following conditions, Session ID does not change upon login Session ID travels in form of HTTP cookie There is no cross site scripting/redirection vulnerability on the login page is it ...
2
votes
4answers
661 views

Can a session be hijacked if the user is redirected from HTTPS to HTTP after login?

I am developing a web app, which makes HTTP calls as long as the user is not logged in. Once the user clicks the login button, he is sent to a "login page" that is HTTPS. The login makes an Ajax call ...
4
votes
2answers
355 views

Deciding whether user has left the site without logging out or has simply left the site open for notifications without actually doing any work?

I am developing my site using server side sessions using redis as backend for saving the session. Now the issue which is bothering me is of user leaving the website without logging out. I mean user ...
15
votes
1answer
847 views

What cookie attacks are possible between computers in related DNS domains (*.example.com)?

Here, several servers in the same DNS domain emit cookies under a variety of settings (scope, HTTPS, Secure) and another host emits a cookie with the same value. Example Suppose a user has the ...
3
votes
1answer
130 views

Session Token Embedded in Form

I have a session token that's stored in a browser cookie client side. The cookie is already available for scripting and it's used to validate XHR through Javascript. For a particular page I'm using ...
4
votes
2answers
729 views

Are PHP Sessions based on cookies or a cookie-IP pair?

I have a PHP website and my question is: If someone manages to steal my users' cookies via an XSS attack, is it enough for him to be identified as the user? Or does his IP also have to be the same as ...
0
votes
0answers
138 views

How can I prevent SESSID stealing? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Can you secure a web app from FireSheep without using SSL? How can I prevent someone on same network from stealing SESSIONID and using it in his own browser (it would ...
5
votes
3answers
267 views

Is randomizing cookie names a good idea?

What security benefits would randomizing cookie names on a website offer? What are some of the challenges it would create?
11
votes
5answers
638 views

Good session practices

What are some good practices for ensuring logins, session IDs and session content are secure for a website?