Issues » Use of Persistent Cookies

Issue: SI-9
Date: Jun 5, 2013, 8:15:00 AM
Severity: Low
Requires Admin Access: Yes
Fix Version: n/a
Credit: ENG
Description:

Cookies are small bits of data that are sent by the web application but stored locally in the browser. dotCMS uses a cookie to pass information stored in cookies such as session Identifiers, personalization and customization information, and in rare cases even usernames to enable automated logins. There are two different types of cookies: session cookies and persistent cookies. Session cookies only live in the browser's memory, and are not stored anywhere. Persistent cookies, however, are stored on the browser's hard drive. This can cause security and privacy issues depending on the information stored in the cookie and how it is accessed. 

Like many web applications, dotCMS uses persistent cookies to enable the "Remember Me" functionality from the login screen. If a user selects "Remember Me" upon logging in, and encrypted cookie is stored on their computer which could be used for malicious purposes.

Mitigation:

If you would like to disable the possibility of this behavior, it is possible to remove the "Remember me" option from the login screen by overriding the /html/portal/login.jsp using a static plugin. If you would like to override this behavior from the front-end login screen, you can provide your own login code by overriding the default login html - see this page for more information.