Certified Ethical Hacker 312-50v11 Practice Test

Automatic deletion of HTTP cookies when a web browser closes primarily mitigates which security risk?

Attempts by attackers to access the user and password information stored in the company's SQL database.

Attempts by attackers to access Web sites that trust the Web browser user by stealing the user's authentication credentials.

The key idea is how web authentication relies on cookies to keep you signed in. When you log in, the site often places a session cookie in your browser that serves as proof of your authenticated state on subsequent requests. If someone steals that session cookie, they can impersonate you on that site and access accounts you’ve already logged into, without needing your password.

Automatically deleting cookies when you close the browser removes those session tokens from the device. That means a thief who comes by later on a shared or unattended computer won’t have a valid cookie to reuse, significantly reducing the chance of session hijacking.

This isn’t primarily about SQL databases, local password files, or tracking your browsing history. It’s about preventing attackers from taking the authenticated session itself and using it to access trusted sites.

Attempts by attackers to access passwords stored on the user's computer without the user's knowledge.

Attempts by attackers to determine the user's Web browser usage patterns, including when sites were visited and for how long.