Patent ID: 7793094

Claim:
A security device for inclusion in a network path between a client device and an application server, comprising: a processor; one or more programs that run on the processor for extracting a cookie from a data packet sent by the application server to the client device, the cookie being generated by the application server for storage on the client device, the one or more programs encrypting the cookie using a secret key and then sending the encrypted cookie to the client device via the network path, the one or more programs being further operable to decrypt the encrypted cookie using the secret key, thereby restoring the cookie when the encrypted cookie is sent back from the client device destined to the application server, the one or more programs then forwarding the cookie to the application server, wherein the one or more programs are further operable to add tag information to the encrypted cookie nor to sending the encrypted cookie to the client device, the tag information identifying operations performed on the cookie by the security device.