Can tracking cookies be malicious?

[Takemaster]

For accurate technical infos research it online. Here is one link returned by searching online for "malicious tracking cookies." There are many other links that discuss the topic of tracking cookies if you search:

Tracking Cookie Technical Details | Symantec

Hello. Thanks for your help. I researched but I only found phising download for solve and a few answer sites said I'ts not malicious. And some people in some sites doesn't know. I only found them about mookie1, I want to ask MalwareTips but now I deleted and blocked 3rd party cookies and switched to Firefox with Ublock Origin. Have a nice day!

 

[Takemaster]

• Browser extensions and add-onsadd extra functionality to your browser such as ad blocking or search bars. However, these add-ons pose a security risk, since they can open up windows into your PC which can be exploited to inject malware.

Source: Heimdal

Hello. My issue isn't Add-ons and toolbars. Thanks, please have a nice day!

 

[Takemaster]

Bump for my issue please.

 

[XhenEd]

Bump for my issue please.

What issue? I believe that your issue about whether tracking cookies are malicious or not is answered already. Tracking cookies, in themselves, are not malicious. They may hurt your privacy, though.

 

[frogboy]

I hate tracking cookies so for Chrome based Browsers I use Cookie AutoDelete and Mozilla based Browsers this Cookie AutoDelete

 

[L S]

Adwcleaner is very good software for "things" like this one, just scan you computer from time to time. ....... And block 3-rd party cookies on your browser.

 

[Takemaster]

Hello. I scanned with Adw, nothing found about it. I started my computer and waiting for Bitdefender update for scanning with EEK. Thanks, have a nice day!

 

[L S]

In theory there could be a bug in the browser that makes it possible to craft a special cookie that somehow fools the browser to run it, e.g. by causing a buffer overflow. Such a bug is quite unlikely in a major browser, and if you could find one it would be considered a big deal.

You can put any text strings into a cookie, so in theory you could put some kind of code there. But for code to do any harm something needs to run it. The web browser does not interpret the content of cookies as code and does not try to run it, so cookies should not be dangerous. (If you have heard cookies being referenced in security related discussions, it is probably in relation to privacy and not viruses.)

So I would not worry about cookies infecting me with a virus. However it is possible to be infected by malware from just visiting a website. This is called "drive by downloads" and is nowadays a common method to spread viruses. The vector that is exploited for this is generally not cookies though, but plugins like Java or Flash.
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[Takemaster]

In theory there could be a bug in the browser that makes it possible to craft a special cookie that somehow fools the browser to run it, e.g. by causing a buffer overflow. Such a bug is quite unlikely in a major browser, and if you could find one it would be considered a big deal.

You can put any text strings into a cookie, so in theory you could put some kind of code there. But for code to do any harm something needs to run it. The web browser does not interpret the content of cookies as code and does not try to run it, so cookies should not be dangerous. (If you have heard cookies being referenced in security related discussions, it is probably in relation to privacy and not viruses.)

So I would not worry about cookies infecting me with a virus. However it is possible to be infected by malware from just visiting a website. This is called "drive by downloads" and is nowadays a common method to spread viruses. The vector that is exploited for this is generally not cookies though, but plugins like Java or Flash.
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Thanks for your reply. I scanned with Emsisoft and nothing found. I will block plugins with NoScript and using Bitdefender.