Hello,
I have an evil cookie observation I'd like to share:
While developing some CGI stuff, I noticed that my browser was sending a
cookie which didn't make sense since I had control of that domain and I
hadn't issues any cookies .. the name "CyberTargetAnonymous" didn't fill
me with confidence either.
After refreshing my knowledge of cookies at netscapes developer site
below I noticed something strange:
http://developer.netscape.com:80/docs/manuals/communicator/jsguide4/cookies.htm
In the section "Determining a valid domain" is this little gem:
<quote>
If the domain attribute matches the end of the fully qualified domain
name of the host, then path matching is performed to determine if
the cookie should be sent. For example, a domain attribute of
royalairways.com matches hostnames anvil.royalairways.com and
ship.crate.royalairways.com.
Only hosts within the specified domain can set a cookie for a domain. In
addition, domain names must use at least two or three periods.
Any domain in the COM, EDU, NET, ORG, GOV, MIL, and INT categories
requires only two periods; all other domains require at least three
periods.
</quote>
So my questions are these:
a) Why would Netscape Communicator 4.7 accept a cookie like this
(invalid -- only two periods):
.com.au TRUE / FALSE 1264987602 CyberTargetAnonymous
NMN000CDCF833FA08963E9BDBC6CAA59301
b) How can this be used by some mass marketing company to turn me into a
number in their systems for sale to the highest bidder?
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not all out to get
you.
--
Iain Wade
S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
