Re: tlug: Cookies and Netscape

[Fredric <fredric.fredriksson@example.com>]

Subba Rao wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> or Netscape, I have set some the preferences to warn me before accepting cookies. Netscape does
> warn me as configured and I accept all of them. At the end of the browsing session, the "cookies" file only
> contains some sites in it. There are many sites, I visited, which have set the cookies but are not in the
> file.
> 
> What happened to these cookies? Are these cookies sent back to the server? Some sites use Javascript.
> Does Javascript erase the cookies, once exit the site? (It should not, since revists to the same site did not
> warn me any cookies).
> 
> Any information is appreciated.
> 
Cookies are described in the RFC 2109 (HTTP State Management Mechanism).
(available at, for example,: ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2109.txt)

For the lazy ones:

Cookies have a max age, most cookies (the default behavior)
are discarded at the end of each session and probably never stored
in the cookie file.

And as far as I understand it: 
A http server can set and clear cookies by sending a set-cookie 
response header as part of the response to a http request from a 
browser. It can not explicitly request cookies or examine the 
cookies held by the browser but the browser will always send 
back the cookies that originated from the server as part of 
each http request header. That is, a http server will only 
have access to the cookies generated by the same server.

Given this I feel that cookies have actually been the target
for a massive FUD campaign. I can not really see what harm 
they can cause. 

I you have access to a httpd sever and can create CGI:s here
is a minimal CGI script that lets you play with setting a 
cookie:

--------- START ---------
#!/bin/bash
echo "Content-Type: text/plain"
echo "Set-cookie: NAME_OF_COOKIE=Value_of_cookie"
echo
set
--------- END -----------

The first run will set the cookie and in the
second run you will see the cookie value in the
HTTP_COOKIE variable (at least for apache).

/Fredric
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