Magic cookie

In computer programming, a magic cookie or cookie is a token or short packet of data passed between communicating programs, where the data is typically not meaningful to the recipient program. The contents are opaque and not usually interpreted until the recipient passes the cookie data back to the sender or perhaps another program at a later time. The cookie is often used like a ticket—to identify a particular event or transaction.

In some cases, recipient programs be be able to meaningfully compare two cookies for equality.

The token supplied at a coat check counter is an example of a magic cookie in real life. The token has no intrinsic meaning, but its uniqueness allows it to be exchanged for the correct coat when returned to the coat check counter. The coat check token is opaque because the way in which the counter staff is able to find the correct coat when the token is presented is immaterial to the person who wishes his coat returned.

Cookies are used as identifying tokens in many computer applications. When one visits a website, the remote server may leave a HTTP cookie on one's computer, where they are often used to authenticate identity upon returning to the website. Cookies are a component of the most common authentication method used by the X Window System.

Some cookies (such as HTTP cookies) have a digital signature appended to them or are otherwise encrypted, so that hostile users or applications are unable to forge a cookie and present it to the sending application, in order to gain access that the hostile user is otherwise not entitled to. Depending on the nature of the encryption algorithm used, users may be able to verify that a cookie is authentic.

Video terminals

Some early video terminal units did not have the memory capacity to store video attributes (such as intensity or inverse display) for each on-screen character individually. Instead, a "magic cookie" character was inserted that displayed as a blank but instructed the video logic to change the attribute of subsequent text. As a consequence, each shift of display attributes would invariably insert one or more space characters, which had to be taken into consideration when designing a particular screen layout. Videotex, as used in teletext, is one of the few instances which have survived into the modern era.

See also

• Magic number (programming)
• Ticket (Computer Security section)

References

This article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later.