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Cookies visible to CCleaner but not to Firefox Settings

jon9999

By jon9999
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jon9999

jon9999

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I see several cookies in the CCleaner cookies windows that I can't find anywhere else. These cookies do not appear in the cookies list under Firefox Settings (and Firefox is the only browser I use).

Some examples are connect.facebook.net, cdnjs.cloudfare.com, and login.wikimedia.org, and these cookies keep coming back after cleaning them up even though I haven't visited those sites and have 3rd-party cookies blocked in Firefox except from visited sites. Notice in the attached image that these cookies are listed in CCleaner, but they aren't listed in Firefox Settings.

Can anyone tell me where these cookies are stored and why I can't see them in Firefox Settings?

 

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jon9999

jon9999

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Let me simplify this question:

Where does CCleaner get its list of Firefox cookies, besides from Firefox's cookie database?

There is a security implication here: If I visit Facebook, for example, in a Firefox Private Browser window (and only in a Private Browser window), it places a facebook.com cookie on my computer that can be seen in the CCleaner cookie list. Since the cookie does not appear in Firefox's own cookie list, Firefox doesn't remove the cookie when the Private Browser window is closed, thus leaving a trace of a site visited on the computer.

So where (i.e., in which directory/file/registry key) might CCleaner have found the trace of that facebook.com cookie?

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Nergal

Nergal

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Are they adobe flash cookies? Maybe supercookies? Click one of them in the cookies on computer column and tell us what the symbol at the bottom of ccleaner says they are cookies of.

 

ADVICE FOR USING CCleaner'S REGISTRY INTEGRITY SECTION

DON'T JUST CLEAN EVERYTHING THAT'S CHECKED OFF.

Do your Registry Cleaning in small bits (at the very least Check-mark by Check-mark)

ALWAYS BACKUP THE ENTRY, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'LL BREAK IF YOU DON'T.

Support at https://support.ccleaner.com/s/?language=en_US

Pro users file a PRIORITY SUPPORT via email support@ccleaner.com

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ident

ident

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Just now, Nergal said:

Are they adobe flash cookies? Maybe supercookies? Click on of them in the cookies on computer column and tell us what the symbol at the bottom of ccleaner says they are cookies of.

They are third-party cookies.

No fate but what we make

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Nergal

Nergal

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Just now, ident said:

They are third-party cookies.

Stop, just let the op answer the question. 3rd party tells nothing in ccleaner.

 

ADVICE FOR USING CCleaner'S REGISTRY INTEGRITY SECTION

DON'T JUST CLEAN EVERYTHING THAT'S CHECKED OFF.

Do your Registry Cleaning in small bits (at the very least Check-mark by Check-mark)

ALWAYS BACKUP THE ENTRY, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'LL BREAK IF YOU DON'T.

Support at https://support.ccleaner.com/s/?language=en_US

Pro users file a PRIORITY SUPPORT via email support@ccleaner.com

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ident

ident

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It's nothing to do with ccleaner. This is a duplicate thread from yesterday. Jesus block them with the host file if so concerned 127.0.0.1 connect.facebook.net

 

No fate but what we make

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mta

mta

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@ident, again, watch the tone.
it could be easily classed as flaming.
simply no need for it.

Backup now & backup often.
It's your digital life - protect it with a backup.
Three things are certain; Birth, Death and loss of data. You control the last.

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Noesis

Noesis

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I'm not sure about the cookies you listed in this post, however in a different post you asked about the partially blacked out hex string cookie.

With regard to the hex cookie, it's most likely the settings for an add-on you have installed. Which add-on I don't know but if you delete the cookie, it will come back however one of your add-ons will revert to it's default settings, meaning you will have to change the settings again, assuming you actually changed them from default in the first place.

You should be able to find it under "c:\users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile_folder>\storage\"  (where <user_name> is your user & <profile_folder> is the relevant firefox profile).  Within the above folder, there will be three sub-folders, (default, permanent & temporary), within one of these sub-folders, in another folder, named "moz-extension+++<hex_string>" will be the data stored for the relevant extension.  This may help you determine what the extension is without using trial and error, but also may not, there a several files in this folder, I suspect the cookie aspect being picked up is in a *.sqlite file in another ("idb") sub-folder.

With regard to the other cookies you mentioned perhaps they are also part of an extension/add-on ? I have no idea.  You should do what Nergal suggested above and select the cookie in ccleaner and see exactly what shows up underneath the box listing the cookies. It could be that they are cookies for internet explorer, or thunderbird (if you use it), or something else.

I know you said you don't use any other browser but that doesn't matter as Windows & other apps may and often use another browser (eg IE) or it's components for some things which can result in cookies for a browser you never use yourself.

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mta

mta

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that hex string cookie is the same shown in the first screenshot of this thread.

Backup now & backup often.
It's your digital life - protect it with a backup.
Three things are certain; Birth, Death and loss of data. You control the last.

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nukecad

nukecad

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A bit late to this conversation but I was recently having Firefox clear cookies on closing and CClearer was still finding them - but all at 0-bytes filesize.
So that said to me that these were probably not files in themselves but CC was reading a file somewhere with the 'cookie' names still in it.

I did a bit of searching on the forum and this was the latest relevant thread, but still no real answer.

So I did some testing and found the file in question.

C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{profile name-number}\SiteSecurityServiceState.txt

If you open it you'll see it's a listing of visited websites with their HSTS ( HTTP Strict Transport Security) protocols.
And you'll see that the website names are what are showing in CC as those cookies.

To double check this rename that file to '.tmp' and CC no longer finds those 'cookies', change it back to '.txt' and they are found again.

Now I know what to look for I can find another three threads about this 'supercookies' file, Nergal tracked it down back in 2015: (and it was added to winapp2.ini  a few months before that)
https://forum.piriform.com/topic/44703-firefox-cookies/?tab=comments#comment-266825

 

*** Out of Beer Error ->->-> Recovering Memory ***

Worried about 'Tracking Files'? Worried about why some files come back after cleaning? See this link:
https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/52668-tracking-files/?tab=comments#comment-300043

 

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Andavari

Andavari

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Yes it's SuperCookies ("Evercookies, Zombiecookies, etc.,").

Ever since it was found out I've been personally using this with Firefox Portable: 

[Super Cookies*]
LangSecRef=3026
SpecialDetect=DET_MOZILLA
Default=True
FileKey1=%SystemDrive%\PortableApps\FirefoxPortable\Data\profile|SiteSecurityServiceState.txt
FileKey2=%SystemDrive%\PortableApps\FirefoxPortableESR\Data\profile|SiteSecurityServiceState.txt

 

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Nergal

Nergal

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If they appear in ccleaner's cookie section shouldn't cookie cleaning grab it without a winapp2 entry?

 

ADVICE FOR USING CCleaner'S REGISTRY INTEGRITY SECTION

DON'T JUST CLEAN EVERYTHING THAT'S CHECKED OFF.

Do your Registry Cleaning in small bits (at the very least Check-mark by Check-mark)

ALWAYS BACKUP THE ENTRY, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'LL BREAK IF YOU DON'T.

Support at https://support.ccleaner.com/s/?language=en_US

Pro users file a PRIORITY SUPPORT via email support@ccleaner.com

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nukecad

nukecad

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13 hours ago, Nergal said:

If they appear in ccleaner's cookie section shouldn't cookie cleaning grab it without a winapp2 entry?

Yes - CCleaner itself (5.44) cleans that file out if 'Firefox Cookies' is selected, (leaving behind anything from any site that you have in your 'cookies to keep').

So it no longer needs to be a winapp2 entry.
If it still is? I know some old entries get cleared from winapp2 now and again.

I had just been wondering why CC still found them to clean when Firefox was set to clear cookies on exit.

*** Out of Beer Error ->->-> Recovering Memory ***

Worried about 'Tracking Files'? Worried about why some files come back after cleaning? See this link:
https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/52668-tracking-files/?tab=comments#comment-300043

 

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