Where are the cookies stored?

Question

I am sending a HTTPWebRequest from C# code and in response I am getting a cookie containing session ID. I am not able to locate the cookie in the public/non public members of response. However fiddler is capturing the cookie and its path is "/". Can anyone please tell me where should I look for this cookie? I have checked the folder "C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies" and its not there.

Side note: Consider using WebClient instead of HTTPWebRequest. See [Using WebClient and HttpWebRequest](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/silverlight_sdk/archive/2008/04/01/using-webclient-and-httpwebrequest.aspx) for the pros and cons of both. — Filburt, May 22 '12 at 11:18

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:27

1

Cookies may be physically stored in different locations, depending on the browser.

I think you're better off getting the HttpWebRequest working with cookies.

See the answer to this question regarding adding a CookieContainer to the request object.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:27

Community

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answered May 22 '12 at 11:13

Widor

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Got what I needed.. Thanks for the early reply.. :) – Tejas May 22 '12 at 11:33

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 22 '12 at 11:14

Every browser store cookies onto different locations For example

Cookie information is stored in the profile folder, in two files. Starting with Firefox 3.0 and SeaMonkey 2.0 the cookie information is stored in the files cookies.sqlite and permissions.sqlite. In Firefox 2 or below and Mozilla Suite/SeaMonkey 1.x, cookies are stored in the cookies.txt file and cookie site permissions are stored in the hostperm.1 file. File Description cookies.sqlite cookies.txt Holds all of your cookies, including login information, session data, and preferences. permissions.sqlite hostperm.1 Holds preferences about which sites you allow or prohibit to set cookies, to display images, to open popup windows and to initiate extensions installation.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 22 '12 at 11:15

Cookie storage depends on both your browser and OS. In older browsers, they were just stored in a file path named something like "Cookies". Most modern browsers store cookies in some encrypted way, usually in a sqllite db flat file. If you could provide more info on what you are trying to track down via the actual local cookie storage (as opposed to using the browser's built in cookie browser), it would help get more info on where to look or alternatives for what you have in mind.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 22 '12 at 11:31

If you want to use persistent cookies with HttpWebRequest, you'll need to import wininet.dll to handle this (or you handle persistence yourself).

There's an example on MSDN in the Community Content section for WebRequest.Create Method.

snippet

[DllImport("wininet.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Auto , SetLastError=true)] 
        private static extern bool InternetGetCookie (string url, string name, StringBuilder data, ref int dataSize);

private static string RetrieveIECookiesForUrl(string url)
{
    StringBuilder cookieHeader = new StringBuilder(new String(' ', 256), 256);
    int datasize = cookieHeader.Length;
    if (!InternetGetCookie(url, null, cookieHeader, ref datasize))
    {
        if (datasize < 0) 
            return String.Empty;
        cookieHeader = new StringBuilder(datasize); // resize with new datasize
        InternetGetCookie(url, null, cookieHeader, ref datasize);
    }
    // result is like this: "KEY=Value; KEY2=what ever"
    return cookieHeader.ToString();
}

Where are the cookies stored?

4 Answers4