233923 - cookie exception problem with 'enable for the current session only'

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: Networking: Cookies, defect)

Description

[Joshua Simmons]

User-Agent:       
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040206 Firefox/0.8

I currently has cookies enabled for the current session only, and really like it
this way, but there is a problem. Every once in a great while I run into a site
that I would prefer to allow a cookie to stay beyond the current session, and
assumed that placing a site in the exemptions would allow that, but it does not.
As far as I have been able to find, in the cookie options, about:config, and the
mozillazine forums, there is no way to specify a site as an exception to the
'enable for the current session only' restriction.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. with only 'enable for the current session only' checked
2. visit www.ups.com, select location
3. add the site to exceptions
4. click the 'start on this page' button to set the cookie
5. close session, start a new session
6. visit the page again

Actual Results:  
despite the site being in the exceptions list, it removes the cookie at session
close, and the site does not remember the information

Expected Results:  
as the site is 'exceptions,allow' it should not be removed on session close.

The allow for current session only setting seems to me to be quite limited in
usability when individual sites cannot be made exempt. Either the current
exceptions need to be expanded to cover this feature, or a new addition added to
exceptions. In my experiance the 'allow for current session only' is a godsend.
It keeps private data private, dumps trackers, and allows normal usage without
annoying and distracting popups asking for permission. I believe this verges on
Major, as it virtualy breaks 'allow for current session only' for me, but it
seems to be.. limited in scope.. as 'allow for current session only' seems to
see little use except perhaps in public applications, where exceptions are not
desired.

Comment 1

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

the cookie that ups.com sets is intended by the site to expire at the end of the
current session.  If you disable the "for the current session only" option and
set the cookie, it still expires at the end of the current session.  The
Exceptions list does prevent downgrading of persistent cookies, but doesn't
extend the lifetime of session cookies beyond the current session.

Comment 2

[Joshua Simmons]

That cookie should remain past the current session, I am sure it is not intended
by the site to last only the current session, first of all just look at the
perpose of the cookie, it is designed to allow the site to remember your
location for future visits to the site, are you goin to visit ups.com more than
once per session? I REALLY doubt it under normal circumstances. If it is being
removed, then I sadly must suggest that perhaps it is a bug in FF, IE keeps the
cookie, and FF is removing my Google preferences cookie as well.

Comment 3

[Joshua Simmons]

It seems to have suddenly started working correctly. Fresh install and fresh
profile to fix another problem seems to have fixed this. The wierd thing is that
I already tried a fresh install and profile before and it didn't help. Anyway it
works for both sites I mentioned now. So it seems that the Exceptions are
working, but something else was the source of the bug. Not sure what you will
want to do with this now, so I'll leave it as is.