However, most of us resorted to simple techniques that shift the ASCII values of each character in a string, like Rot13. In previous versions of ASP, you would have been forced to purchase third party components to handle this encryption, or, if you are a genius, you could have ventured off and created your own components. If you must, then you have a responsibility to protect that data through encryption. So, here is some advice – don’t store sensitive data about users in cookies. (C is for “Cookie” :)) On my machine, there are currently 1,850 cookie files. Sort the list alphabetically, then scroll down to the Cs. An Explorer window will display all the cached data your browser has kindly filled your hard drive with. Then on the Settings dialog click View Files. From the Internet Options dialog click the Settings button. Open Internet Explorer, select Tools and then Internet Options from the menu.
![asp.net webtools asp.net webtools](https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/content/uploads/2017/04/asp-net.png)
If you have never seen the voluminous quantity of cookie data on your machine, try the following. So when your 16 year old finds this “convenient” data and forges off to rack up thousands of dollars in charges on it will suddenly become clear why cookie security is important.
![asp.net webtools asp.net webtools](https://hochregal.net/images/asp-net-application-development-tools.gif)
Figure #1 shows an example of the contents of a cookie file. This means that anyone that has access to your hard drive can see and open your cookies. The second problem is that cookie data is stored in nice little unrestricted cookie files in a browser’s cache directory.
![asp.net webtools asp.net webtools](http://a.fsdn.com/con/app/proj/wsatudri/screenshots/299861.jpg)
That means anyone who is clever enough to sniff packets on a particular port of a particular IP address can read cookie data as plain as day. First, unless your site uses SSL, cookie data is passed in the clear in the header of both the HTTP request and response. However, cookies are problematic from a security point of view for two reasons. It is always a good idea to publish privacy statements to inform your users about how their data is being used and stored on your Web site.Ĭookies can provide a real convenience to both visitors and programmers of a Web-based application. I also discussed privacy issues concerning the use of cookie data, particularly if you are storing sensitive information about your visitors/users.
#Asp.net webtools how to#
My last article, Tracking Visitors with ASP.NET, showed how to use cookies to keep track of site visitors across sessions.