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IE8, Web Bug, Redirects and Cookies

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2010 10:47 am
by BtySgtMajor
Hi all,

I've come across something very odd and my searches through Google have been fruitless.

Essentially, I have a "web bug" implemented on my page, e.g. <img src="/actions/web_bug" />. The call to "/actions/web_bug" invokes a PHP script. This PHP script is then supposed to to a series of faceless redirects via "header('location: ...');". This works for the most part; however, in IE8, I notice that (through an HTTP debugger) that appropriate cookies that already exist that are associated with the domain to which I'm redirecting are NOT being attached to the HTTP request unless I turn my IE8 Privacy settings down to "Accept All Cookies". So, for example, say the "header('location: ...');" call is going to somewhere.domain.com; at that moment, I know for a fact that there are cookies on disk that pertain to somewhere.domain.com. Those cookies are NOT being attached the HTTP request when using IE8 unless I turn down my Privacy settings.

In all other browsers (Firefox, Chrome, etc.), this is not a problem--the cookies are successfully attached. Also, if I try to do a direct request via my browser's address bar (or via a "header('location: ...');" or in some directly-called PHP script, i.e. the main processing, not called as a service like in the <img> tag above, the cookies are attached just fine in IE8.

This is a big problem for me. I had toyed with the thought of a P3P policy, but, without the P3P policy to begin with, shouldn't those cookies be blocked outright from saving? I might be wrong on that...

Thank you in advance for any help/insight.