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How do you analyze changes in cookie data?

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sswett
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sswett asked on 10 Feb 2014, 08:00 PM
I would like to analyze changes in cookie data for the traffic captured during a session.  I don't want to look at each request's "Inspectors > Cookies" panel and do a manual comparison against the cookie values in the previous request.

Is there a tool or technique that automates this somewhat?  Thanks in advance.

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EricLaw
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answered on 10 Feb 2014, 08:40 PM
You could write script or an extension to do anything you want.

But perhaps you'd be happy if the Cookie header were simply shown as a new column in the Web Sessions list? If so, right-click the headers, choose Customize Columns, and use the window to add a column showing the Cookie request header and/or one showing the Set-Cookie response header.
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sswett
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answered on 10 Feb 2014, 09:33 PM
Thanks for the tip on column customization.  That's nice to know.  Adding the "Set-Cookie" header might do the job.

I am still interested in a way to automatically track any differences in cookie values that are sent to the server along with the request -- just in case the request is made slightly differently for some reason.  The session will be interacting with the same server and application, but there's a possibility that the protocol will switch between http and https -- and a possibility that the domain might change slightly.  I'd like to know if the client sends up cookie values that are different from what was sent with the previous request.

Ideally, I'd like to do so without writing any new code.  You know, checking to see if such a tool or technique is already available -- even if it isn't Fiddler or a Fiddler add-on.
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sswett
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answered on 10 Feb 2014, 09:37 PM
To elaborate, the session is somehow being ended, and I'm trying to find out why.  It is not a reproducible-on-demand scenario, and there could be many requests/reponses before the session is ended.  The typical exception or timeout is not happening.  That's why I'm investigating cookies.  It also seems to happen more on IE than other browsers.
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EricLaw
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answered on 12 Feb 2014, 04:42 PM
For the task you describe, you'd want to simply add the request header COOKIE column and then watch when/if the cookie value changes.

In terms of why cookies "go missing"-- this can be due to P3P policy (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ieinternals/archive/2013/09/17/simple-introduction-to-p3p-cookie-blocking-frame.aspx), various bugs in IE (most have been patched over the years), or bugs in the web application.
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sswett
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answered on 12 Feb 2014, 06:19 PM
Thanks for the tip, Eric.
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