The header information with a cookie can look something like the following: 
Set-Cookie: user_id:dajohn13; domain=.somedomain.com; path=/cgi-bin;
            expires=Sat, 01-Apr-2003 11:30:00 GMT; secure

[download]
That is sent as plain text, which is not secure. Whatever values you set for the cookie can then be sniffed, so sensitive information shouldn't be passed this way.

In the example above, the secure parameter is used, which means that the browser will not return the cooking unless you are using a secure URL with the https protocol. That should provide adequate security and will make your scripts much safer if you plan to use cookies.

In reply to Re: Cookie based authentication: Is it secure? by Ovid
in thread Cookie based authentication: Is it secure? by rodry

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.