You can't "decrypt" the Digest::MD5 encryption. The strings produced are not necessarily unique, meaning that if someone comes across the encrypted data they cannot turn it back into the original. The best use for this is too encrypt the key to a unique user in a server side database, and check that the encrypted cookie matches the encrypted key on the server, then give the submitting user access to the associated info. merlyn goes through the whole technique very thoroughly (and with many precautions and tricks that I haven't given you) in his Web Technique column. Check out http://web.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/col32.html

Cheers,
Erik

In reply to Re: Cookies & Encryption by erikharrison
in thread Cookies & Encryption by chiller

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