Question 23

Examine the statements:

• (A) 'A cookie is a piece of code that has the potential to compromise the security of an Internet user.' This statement is false. An HTTP cookie is purely passive text data (a name-value pair along with metadata attributes), not executable code or a program. It cannot execute on the client system by itself.
• (B) 'A cookie gains entry to the user's work area through an HTTP header.' This is true; cookies are transmitted via the Set-Cookie HTTP response header and stored in the browser's cookie storage.
• (C) 'A cookie has an expiry date and time.' This is true; persistent cookies specify an expiration via Expires or Max-Age attributes.
• (D) 'Cookies can be used to track the browsing pattern of a user at a particular site.' This is true; session identifiers and tracking tokens are commonly maintained via cookies.

Since statement A is incorrect, it is the correct answer to the question.