Where Flavor Dances with Simplicity Welcome to Pinch of Yum, a haven for home cooks where deliciousness meets convenience. Forget intimidating, Michelin-worthy dishes; here, recipes are your friendly neighborhood guide, leading you straight to flavor town. A Vegetarian's Delight, a Noodle Nirvana: No meat? No problem! Pinch of Yum embraces the vibrant world of vegetarian cooking, proving it's brimming with exciting possibilities. Dive into creamy coconut curries packed with seasonal vegetables, or whip up a quick black bean burger bursting with smoky chipotle spice. You'll find lentil stews that sing with warming herbs and roasted vegetable buddha bowls overflowing with color and nutrition. But let's not forget the noodle enthusiasts! Pinch of Yum is your noodle oracle, offering an array of slurpable delights. Master fluffy pad thai with a secret peanut sauce, conquer crispy stir-fries that come together in a flash, or cozy up with comforting one-pot portions...
A cookie could define it as a file with information sent by a web site that is saved in your browser. The purpose is that the website can consult the previous activity and indicate, among other things, that a user has visited it previously.
Cookies have two functions. The first is to remember the access , in that sense, it remembers our preferences and shows us or not certain content. In addition, if a user enters their username and password, it is saved in the cookie so that they do not have to be setting it every time we access that website techwadia. The second function is that it allows us to know information regarding our browsing habits . The problem is that sometimes, they can cause problems related to privacy.
Cookies also track the behavior of
Internet users, which helps companies to show us more personalized ads.
Furthermore,
all cookies on a web page store the information of its users in the form of
hash data. From the moment the data is hashed, it can only be read from
the source website. This happens because the web page uses a unique
algorithm to encode and decode the hash data. In the event that a
cybercriminal knew the hash algorithm of that website, from that moment the
data of that user may be compromised.
What is cookie theft
The robbery of
cookies or the scraping of cookies (Cookie Scraping) is
likewise called consultation hijacking
or cookie hijacking . In this
assault, the attacker takes over the client's session. A consultation starts
offevolved whilst a customer logs in to a selected issuer, as an instance
Internet banking, and ends when they log off. The assault is based totally on
how lots expertise the hacker has about customers' session cookies.
In many situations, when a user logs into
a web application, the server sets a temporary session cookie in the web
browser. Thanks to this temporary session cookie, we know that that
specific user is connected to a particular session. It should be noted
that a successful session hijacking will only occur when the cybercriminal
knows the victim's session key or session ID. Thus, in the event that it
can steal session cookies, it can take over the user's session. Also a
different way to steal the user's cookies is to force them to click on some
malicious link.
On the other hand, an option that we could
consider to avoid the theft of cookies would be for our browser to block all
cookies. In the case that you intend to navigate, it could simply be an
option to consider. However, if we want to use services such as e-mail,
participate in forums, etc. is going to require us to use cookies. Therefore,
in most situations to be able to use everything, to gain comfort and to save
our preferences, we will have no choice but to use cookies.
Procedures and techniques for the theft of
cookies and session hijacking
An
attacker has many ways to steal cookies or hijack user sessions. Next, we
are going to suggest on some of the most used procedures. Let's start with
the ones related to the login.
The
first is Session Sniffing or
translated session sniffing . With
this method, the cybercriminal uses a packet analyzer. In case you don't
know, a packet analyzer is a piece of hardware or software that helps monitor
network traffic. Because session cookies are part of the network traffic,
session tracking allows hackers to easily find and steal them. As for the
websites most vulnerable to session tracking, they are on those pages that SSL
/ TLS encryption is used only at the login and not on the rest of the website.
Another
very common place where this type of attack occurs is when we are in open or
public Wi-Fi networks, since user authentication is not required to connect to
them. This way they monitor traffic and steal cookies from different
users. Furthermore, in such Wi-Fi networks, cybercriminals can carry out
man-in-the-middle attacks by creating their own access points. to navigate in this type of networks we recommend the use of a VPN.
The attack Session Fixation and Session fixation is a type of phishing
attempt. In this procedure the attacker sends a malicious link to the
target user by email. Then the moment the user logs into their account by
clicking that link, the hacker will know the user's session ID. Then when
the victim successfully logs in, the hacker takes over the session and already
has access to the account.
We
also have the cross-site scripting (XSS) attack . Here
the cybercriminal tricks the victim's computer system with malicious code in a
secure way that appears to come from a trusted server. The cybercriminal
then runs the script and gains access to steal the cookies. This happens
the moment a server or web page lacks essential security parameters, hackers
can easily inject client-side scripts.
Another
option is with malware attacks that
are created to track packets, which makes it easier for them to steal session cookies. This
malware accesses the user's system when they visit unsafe web pages or click on
malicious links.
Why are cookies valuable to cybercriminals?
Thanks
to cookie theft, users' private
information can be obtained ,
such as credit card details, login details for different accounts, and more. Also
this information can be sold on the dark web . Another
thing they can try to achieve is identity theft ,
the most common objectives of which are to obtain loans in our name or use our
credit cards for purchases.
They
can also use cookie theft to take over our account
and carry out illegal activities . For example, they
may impersonate us to obtain confidential information and then blackmail their
victims. In addition, they could use it to carry out Phishing attacks in a fraudulent
attempt to obtain confidential information from users.
Can users prevent the theft of cookies?
As
for the web pages, it would be recommended that they have an SSL certificate
and a security complement installed. To this should be added that the
website must be kept up to date. Finally, regarding Internet users, the
measures we can take to avoid being victims of cookie theft are:
- Close the
session from all websites when we stop using it, so that this cookie
expires and can no longer be deleted.
- Delete
cookies from our browser periodically.
Other
basic safety recommendations are:
- Have a good
antivirus, and if possible antimalware software.
- Have our
operating system and security software updated with the latest updates
installed.
- Download
programs from original sources, that is, from the developer's website.
- Do not click
on suspicious links such as offers with abnormally low prices.
As
you have seen, the theft of cookies is something quite common to capture, but
also to avoid, therefore, we recommend that you always close the section