--- "CPT John W. Holmes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > I am still new to web programing but I have a lot of experience in
> > developing non web based applications. So I think I am a reasonably
> > clever programmer and I have now done enough web programming that I
> > understand the cookie mechanism. What I can't figure out is why so
> > many people are paranoid about cookies. I don't really see much of
> > anything that can be done with cookies to invade someones privacy.
> > Am I missing something here?
> 
> Exactly. The problem isn't the mechanism, it's the implementation by
> the programmer. If you save my favorite color in a cookie, no big deal.
> If you save my username and password in a cookie, that is a big deal.

Ditto what John said. In addition, you might want to research DoubleClick
and Web bugs (two separate things) as well as understand a bit how a
browser requests all of the resources necessary to render a page.

As for why people are paranoid, I think you will find out if you search
for cookies and read what sort of information is out there. In fact, aside
from the original Netscape specification, I don't think I've read anything
online about cookies that wasn't full of misinformation.

Finally, you may want to check out the following two URLs:

http://www.peacefire.org/security/iecookies/
http://www.solutions.fi/index.cgi/news_2001_11_08?lang=eng

Hope that helps.

Chris

=====
Chris Shiflett - http://shiflett.org/

PHP Security Handbook
     Coming mid-2004
HTTP Developer's Handbook
     http://httphandbook.org/

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