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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-28T03:17:12+00:00

I know how the cookies work, just started to dig why Codeigniter does not

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I know how the cookies work, just started to dig why Codeigniter does not store generated csrf token in SESSION, it just store in cookie. Concerned about security, I’v started to think about php setcookie() function params such as path and domain. And I have asked myself is it possible to set ‘evil_cookie’ with a path=’/’ and domain = ‘www.goodsite.com’ from another domain, from some ‘www.evilsite.com’? And another question is, will ‘evil_cookie’ be sent to ‘www.goodsite.com’ when performing request to ‘www.goodsite.com’?

So, I did a test. I’v created ‘set_cookie.php’ file and uploaded it to some ‘www.evilsite.com’: 

setcookie('evil_cookie', 'gotcha', time() + 60 * 30, '/', 'www.goodsite.com');

I was using Firefox and Firebug + Cookie plugins for viewing sent and received cookies. So, I did receive ‘evil_cookie’ after the request to ‘www.evilsite.com/set_cookie.php’. However, the cookie was not saved (at least there was no such cookie when viewing in firebug cookie plugin panel). Nor it was sent when requesting again to “www.evilsite.com/set_cookie.php”. Just received but not saved.

From the Firefox browser point of view, it’s logical and secure to save cookie for current domain only. IMHO those set cookie() params such as path and domain are primarily for managing cookies for current domain and its subdomains but not for external domains. I was a little bit upset I was unable to find related info on php.net, so I’m not sure is it a browser related behavior and specifics how it deals with “3rd party cookies” or it’s more a standard? Does all browsers behave the same? If there’s any solid and reliable source for such statements please share.

That is also relevant to another use of cookies – store session data (without using PHP native sessions, for example Codeigniter does so). So, if all browsers do not allow to safe cookie with other than current domain then It’s OK. However, it does not protect from CSRF as ‘www.evilsite.com’ might contain evil javascript code that will create ‘evil_cookie’ directly on the client when a user will perform and get a request from ‘www.evilsite.com’.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    […] is it possible to set ‘evil_cookie’ with a path=’/’ and domain = ‘www.goodsite.com’ from another domain, from some ‘www.evilsite.com’?

    No, user agents should ignore Set-Cookie directives with Domain attributes that do not domain-match the current requested domain:

    The user agent will reject cookies unless the Domain attribute
    specifies a scope for the cookie that would include the origin
    server. For example, the user agent will accept a cookie with a
    Domain attribute of "example.com" or of "foo.example.com" from
    foo.example.com, but the user agent will not accept a cookie with a
    Domain attribute of "bar.example.com" or of "baz.foo.example.com".

    Such cookies would not even be accepted by user agents. Similar applies to the Path and Secure attributes.

    See also How do browser cookie domains work? for examples of how the Domain attribute values are interpreted by user agents.

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