What Are The Basic Aspects To Know About Cookie Hijacking?

By Author: selinsjesse
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Affiliate marketing is the best way to generate leads and sales. But it can also be ripe for abuse by nefarious affiliates. Affiliate marketing fraud can come in various forms. Cookie hijacking is a major type of affiliate fraud that can affect your affiliate campaigns.

Cookie hijacking refers to the process of inserting affiliate cookies with adware. In cookie hijacking affiliate fraud, the threat actors hijack the clickable elements on your affiliate’s websites. On a website, cookies, and sessions store information about the visitors.

Once the malicious affiliates access the session ID, they will get unauthorized access to a web application. Cookie hijacking, also known as session hijacking, can let the threat actor impersonate a valid user. The cookie hijacking attacks involve injecting JavaScript code into the website of your legitimate affiliates.

In this type of affiliate fraud, threat actors also leverage popups to steal the credentials of your users. Cookies are suitable for websites to maintain the user experience of visitors. Cookies let the websites tailor the browsing experience of their ...
... users. Cookies are beneficial in affiliate marketing as they help with the proper attribution of sales. Here are some essential aspects to know about cookie hijacking.

Overview of Cookie Hijacking
When you log in to a website, you start a session. Every web service and website recognizes a user by their session ID. If the session IDs of your users find their way into the hands of a threat actor, they can impersonate the users.

Your company’s marketing team should know about the risks associated with session hijacking. A session is a way a website tracks as you navigate between pages and interact with the website. The website’s server creates a session cookie when you log in.

The session cookie gets deleted when you log out. The session cookie makes it simple for the website to identify your users. Without session cookies, the users would have to authenticate whenever they access the website. Session cookie hijacking can affect the reputation of your brand as it steals the credentials of your users.

Cookie hijacking is a stealthy attack and can take place without the victim knowing anything
Session hijacking attacks are tough to identify because they use authentic-looking emails
Session hijacking also involves the installation of malicious code in the user’s system
It is tough to detect as users cannot be certain whether they are visiting a legitimate website

What are the Main Reasons behind Executing Cookie Hijacking Attacks?
The nefarious affiliates leverage cookie hijacking attacks for several purposes. To secure users, you should know the main reasons to execute cookie hijacking attacks.

Customers can Get Redirected to other Websites
Your customers may get redirected to product pages. The main reason is to redirect your users to malicious websites and steal their data. Threat actors can hijack the search bar and drop an affiliate cookie as the user clicks on the search icon.

Mismatches the Query of the Users
Cookie hijacking may entirely mismatch the query of your users. The buyer searches for luxury clothing and receives results for bags. Cookie hijacking tarnishes your company’s reputation and image. Threat actors also modify the native cookie with the affiliate cookie to get false commissions.

The Working Mechanism of Cookie Hijacking
The unscrupulous affiliates need remote and unauthorized access to the cookies. They achieve their objectives by hijacking web sessions to steal the user’s personal information. Here are some of the common methods for cookie hijacking you should know.

Use of Adware
Adware used by threat actors can find a way into the system of your users. The adware and malware introduced to the victim’s system offer remote access to the malicious affiliates.

Cross-Site Scripting
Cross-site scripting involves the injection of malicious code. Threat actors can use cross-site scripting to target buyers and your legitimate affiliates. With cross-site scripting, the affiliates can access the session details and other sensitive information of your customers.
Threat actors use a cookie hijacking tool to conduct large-scale attacks.

Cookie Hijacking Causes Reputational Damage to your Company
By stealing the credentials of your users, threat actors can cause reputational damage to your company. The session cookies comprise the confidential data of your users. They will also get access to your marketing team’s network to inject malware.

The Customer Experience of Users get Affected
Nefarious affiliates can regulate the cookies of the customers and sessions remotely. Threat actors can perform each action like an authorized user. The user experience will get affected during session hijacking. Once the customers identify malicious activities, the brand may lose its loyal users.

How can Virus Positive Technologies (VPT) Help Combat Cookie Hijacking?
VPT uses machine learning for session hijacking prevention. The expert team at VPT will offer the right solutions to maintain your brand reputation. VPT can monitor your affiliate network and raise red flags during violations.