Cookie logging is the most popular form of hacking. To understand cookie logging, though, you must understand cookies. Basically, a browser stores information that comes from you in the form of cookies.
What are Cookies?
Sadly for me, these cookies aren’t tasty. Cookies contain data about location, PII, preferences, historical actions etc. Ever tried deleting your cookies? Well I have, and for example, I delete my cookies for Twitter, it will not recognize me anymore and ask for a login.
What is Cookie Logging?
The thing with Cookies is that it provides all account data without even knowing the password. The best example I can give is the game “Roblox“. You may have heard of it, you may have not. Either way, it serves as a good example to show Cookie Logging.
Many Roblox users have Discord, which is where most of the hacking happens. One person convinces the other to click a link or download something which is something malicious in disguise.
The program that was downloaded or the link that was clicked would be a cookie logger and would get the cookies of somebody and all their data too.
The Minecraft Hacking incident
Minecraft has their own sort of cookies called session ids. Basically, when a player joins a server in Minecraft, the client sends a session id to prove that they really are the owner of the account. It was an easy way to prove it is really them without accessing their private information. But that was the worst part about it too. Because if someone had your session id, they can acces your account without knowing your password, sort of like cookie logging.
At that time, session ids were poorly protected and so, hacking clients started to form ways into getting these session ids and impersonating people.