A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is used for an origin website to send state information to a user's browser and for the browser to return the state information to the origin site. The state information can be used for authentication, identification of a user ...
15
votes
1answer
837 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 ...
6
votes
2answers
1k views
Is it safe to store the password hash in a cookie and use it for “remember-me” login?
I want to store an encrypted string of the password hash in a cookie and use the hash to lookup the user and log them in (if they want to be remembered).
Is this safe? The password is one-way hashed ...
7
votes
2answers
444 views
When are HTTP session cookies at risk over Wi-Fi?
If I'm using websites that do not use HTTPS, but I'm on a WEP-protected Wi-Fi network, are my cookies safe from being sniffed by third-parties?
Are cookies only at risk during login, or am I at risk ...
11
votes
5answers
634 views
Good session practices
What are some good practices for ensuring logins, session IDs and session content are secure for a website?
11
votes
3answers
1k views
How can I prevent tracking by ETAGs?
An ETAG is a HTTP header that is sent-behind-the-scenes between a web browser and an web server. This value is intended to control how long a particular file is cached on the client side.
There is ...
14
votes
2answers
8k views
How can I check that my cookies are only sent over encrypted https and not http?
I read a blog post GitHub moves to SSL, but remains Firesheepable that claimed that cookies can be sent unencrypted over http even if the site is only using https. They write that a cookie should be ...
4
votes
3answers
284 views
Are there security (esp. privacy) benefits to deleting cookies?
As the title says, I'm wondering if there are any security/privacy benefits to managing cookies - that is, managing by deleting cookies you don't want or need.
I deleted all my cookies about a week ...
3
votes
3answers
1k views
What authentication system (OpenID, Facebook, etc) permits Javascript-free and/or Cookie-Free operation?
I'm looking for an authentication system that relies on 3rd parties (ADFS, OpenID, SAML) but doesn't rely on cookies or Javascript... or at least can make them optional.
My intent is to gracefully ...
2
votes
2answers
406 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 ...
7
votes
5answers
834 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
130 views
What issues might exist with TLS-OBC's emulation of Browser Certificates?
TLS-OBC is an RFC proposal that increases SSL/TLS security by using certificates on both ends of the TLS connection. What's special here is that the client is permitted to dynamically create a local, ...
3
votes
4answers
177 views
Improving the privacy of a casual Web user
I am interested in improving the privacy available to me as a casual internet user with a default browser. I think that Tor is too slow and that the "Privacy Mode" in browsers isn't really practical. ...
3
votes
1answer
147 views
What servers or clients are immune to related-domain cookie attacks? (*.example.com)
In this question, I want to identify browsers, servers, or implementations that are immune from related domain cookie attacks (e.g. a.example.com vs b.example.com).
Lacking any tangible solution, ...
1
vote
3answers
290 views
Is this approach of securing cookie secure?
I could not find writeups about secure cookies so I have done some thinking. (I already have a "secure" password database with bcrypt and salt)
Steps:
User logs in
Save user IP + randomstring in ...
1
vote
2answers
142 views
Is it okay from a security perspective to read foreign (untrusted) cookies in a trusted network?
From a security point of view, is it okay to read foreign (untrusted) cookies (from 3rd parties on the Internet) on your internal (trusted) network, or should you only read them within the DMZ areas ...
